Mexican boxer Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez assured on Friday that he wants to end the career of veteran Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin in the long-awaited third fight between the two in September in Las Vegas.
Four years after their last fight, both fighters starred in a tense reunion on Friday at the official presentation of the closing of the trilogy, which will take place on September 17 at the T-Mobile Arena.
The first confrontation between the 31-year-old Mexican and the 40-year-old Kazakh ended in a controversial draw in 2017, with many experts giving Golovkin the winner.
The second, held a year later, ended with a unanimous decision victory for Álvarez, who now, become the undisputed super middleweight champion, wants to settle any doubts about his superiority by knockout.
“That’s what I’ll be looking for from the first assault,” said ‘Canelo’ in a meeting with journalists on Friday at a theater in Los Angeles (California).
Shortly after, the boxer from Guadalajara held a two-minute face-to-face with Golovkin on stage, whom he disqualified for some comments made within the framework of this long and bitter rivalry.
“For me this is personal. It’s my way of being. I don’t pretend to be someone else or say different things in the media or elsewhere,” Álvarez said. “It’s personal to me because he said a lot of things.”
“He is like two different people. He pretends to be a nice guy but he’s not. He is an asshole”, said ‘Canelo’, with only a chair getting in the way of the Kazakh.
The Mexican, who needs a win to forget his shock loss in May to Russia’s Dmitry Bivol, stressed that he wants to send Golovkin into retirement with a fast-track win.
“And I will make it for sure,” he said. “That’s the only way I want to end this fight.”
“I don’t take it personally,” Golovkin replied. “This is sport. I don’t try to be two different guys as has been said.”
“I don’t understand what you are talking about because after the second fight we shook hands and I think we left everything behind at that moment,” he said. “If he says he still has something against me, it’s his problem, not mine.”