Golovkin and Canelo rematch set to go down to the wire

WBC/WBA/IBO middleweight titles
BT Sport Box Office, approx 4am Sunday

A year has passed since Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin battled out an entertaining draw in Las Vegas, and another hard-fought clash is on the cards when they head back to the T-Mobile Arena for the sequel in a potential fight of the year.

Golovkin is a slight favourite, which makes sense as despite the judges scoring the first contest as a stalemate the general consensus was that GGG did just enough to edge a close decision.

This rematch was originally scheduled for Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican holiday in May, but Canelo was banned by the Nevada Athletic Commision after twice testing positive for a banned substance in February.

GGG kept busy with a tune-up fight, beating Vanes Martirosyan inside two rounds, but Canelo has been inactive for 12 months, the biggest hiatus of his career.

One observation during fight week has been how much leaner Canelo looks than usual, which suggests he is planning to be quicker and more mobile than last time, and that could be a good tactic as the normally lethal GGG found it difficult to land power punches on Alvarez.

It was the second consecutive fight that Golovkin had been taken the distance, and it fuelled theories that the 36-year old is showing signs of deterioration as he was on a 23-fight KO streak before he was taken to the scorecards by Daniel Jacobs and Canelo.

The draw with Canelo also highlighted another potential pitfall for GGG backers - if anyone is likely to get stitched up by the judges its the smiling Kazakh rather than the Mexican cash cow.

Canelo's decreased muscle mass could be a problem as he is the smaller guy, and if he does get caught it may affect his ability to absorb punishment from one of the most feared punchers on the planet, but he will have gained confidence from taking GGG the full 12 rounds and will be looking to build on that.

These are two of the greatest boxers of the modern era - between them the have had 91 pro fights and lost only one - when Floyd Mayweather beat Canelo by majority decision in 2013.

Now 28, Canelo is in his prime and armed with the lessons of their first fight he may just do enough to scrape a close and probably controversial decision.

Recommendation
C Alvarez on points
1pt 2-1 general

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