By Mark McCourt: As the hotly anticipated September 16th fight between Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez quickly approaches its clear a lot if people want to throw the 50 cents in. You have the likes of Errol Spence Jr., Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Andre Berto all picking the redhead Canelo to win. There are some even suggesting by Knockout. You then have others, for example, Danny Jacobs, Gabriel Rosado and Kell Brook (yes, all seem to be prior victims of Golovkin) picking Golovkin to win.

On this very site, there is a clear divide of opinion. Some people believe Golovkin’s pressure and punching power will prove too much to handle, whilst others feel that Canelo will too skilled and slick for Golovkin to be effective against. I am sat firmly on the fence and think both fighters are fantastic and both have the potential to come out the victor on the night.

Canelo has continued to look better and better over the last few years. His only loss coming at the hands of Floyd Mayweather. This was not a loss to be ashamed of. Canelo has a very effective counter punching style, one mildly reminiscent of a prime Marquez. Canelo is economical but makes his punches count. Whilst his KO ratio isn’t huge, he can clearly punch hard and has some show reel one punch KO’s to his name.

Canelo’s upper body movement is superb and he throws some amazing feints that then turn into alternative punches. His ability to do this makes him hard to read and enables him to open up his opponent’s guards. Sometimes Canelo’s footwork can be a bit lacking but this is generally not an issue due to his upper body movement. Canelo has faced and beaten some stellar opposition in Miguel Cotto, Austin Trout, Erislandy Lara and Shane Mosley. All these names are miles ahead of what Golovkin has faced; although people do question two of these wins and the other two were against past their prime versions.

Golovkin had initially looked like a wrecking ball at middleweight, savaging his way through opponents as if they hadn’t entered a ring before. He has looked slightly more human as he has upped his level of opposition and his last fight out against Jacobs forced him to extend himself for the full 12 rounds for the first time in his career. Golovkin has amazing footwork and distance judgement that allows him to put constant pressure on his opponents. He hits hard and often. Whilst I believe his power is overrated, I think it’s his pressure and persistence that usually wears his opponents down. People have often questioned his defensive capabilities, and whilst he does get hit his defense is not as porous as some would have us believe. Golovkin’s last two outing have lead some fans to believe he may be in the decline, or that he was perhaps over rated all along as he has supposedly been exposed. I am not one of these people. Yes, he lost a round to Brook and Brook landed some solid punches on Golovkin, but let’s be real he won a round and was stopped before the 6th. Against Jacobs, Golovkin faced his first real stiff test and won the fight in a reflectively convincing fashion. I say reflectively as on first seeing the fight, I believed it to be close. On re-watching, I think there was a clear winner in Golovkin.

Canelo has the better resume and more refined looking style and Golovkin has size power and reputation over Canelo. Either way, we look at it this will be an exciting fight full of drama and the fact that people are split as to who will win only goes to show what an exciting fight we have ahead of us. I think whoever manages to dictate the pace of the fight will walk away victorious. Canelo will aim to keep the fight paced and pick Golovkin off with sharp counters, and Golovkin will aim to use his ring generalship and control Canelo throughout. I for one can’t wait to see what happens.

What are your thoughts?