Via Sean Jones: Gennadiy Golovkin’s coach Johnathon Banks revealed today’s game plan for how GGG plans to beat Canelo Alvarez in their trio battle this Saturday.
Banks said the plan to compete for Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) is to beat undisputed super-middleweight champion Canelo (57-2-2.39 KOs) using mass punching .
In other words, Banks’ strategy was for Golovkin to follow the blueprint created by Dmitry Bivol to attack Canelo. It worked to perfection for Bivol last May to win a one-way round 12 unanimous decision.
I mean, it wasn’t an overnight decision with the team of judges assigned to the fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but the fight went to Bivol, who won 11- 1 in rounds.
For Golovkin to be able to get past Canelo, he will need to pull off combos like Bivol as he won’t be able to beat the Mexican star if he fights like he did in the two Canelo competitions- First Golovkin.
In those two skirmishes, Golovkin and Canelo took turns shooting each other with hard hits, and there wasn’t too much of a difference in landing shots.
“Knowing that this is going to be a close fight, the goal is to get past your opponent,” said Johnathon Banks. Against TV Hub about his game plan for Golovkin to beat Canelo Alvarez.
“You put on the hard hat, and you go to work, and you have to work. The goal is for him [Gennadiy] to beat your opponent. The two fighters are significantly different from the first two fights.
“The only person who can keep his weight is G [Golovkin]. Canelo moved to light heavyweight, super medium heavyweight. He is [Canelo] a different type of fighter to him in those two matches, and it will be a little easier to defeat him.
“Working with him doesn’t mean it will be an easy fight. It will be a little easier to work with him [Canelo] because he doesn’t throw volume punches like he used to. Canelo doesn’t throw volume punches like he used to.
“The last few fights, it was knockers, knockdowns, knockdowns, and one punch knockdowns. Again, this is not something negative about Canelo. I’m just dissecting what he’s doing. He’s not the volume puncher he used to be.
“He has become such a ruthless knocker, especially what he did to Kovalev. He’s looking back at himself, ‘Why not someone like that? It has helped me so far, so why not do it? In that respect, G should be able to work better than him, but he still has to watch out for impending massive power hits.
“I don’t have anything to say about that because that’s everyone’s opinion,” Banks said when telling fans that 40-year-old Golovkin couldn’t get past Canelo.
“I have a mindset about what I want to do and what I want to see. So I have to get out of there. Yes, he’s older, but he’s still going to work. I still believe he can outshine his opponent, especially when you have a guy who just wants to step down and throw a punch at a time.
“It’s going to be tough because you have to watch out for tough shots, but you can still be a volume puncher. If GGG throws 35 punches in one round, that will be enough to overtake Canelo since he doesn’t throw that many punches per round.
“He just blocks, blocks and just looks for a punch that will have a big impact on his opponent. Will he hurt GGG, or will GGG hurt him? That’s what we have to wait for.
“Neither boxer touched the canvas, and that’s why this fight has 12 rounds written on it. Yes, Canelo said he was coming to destroy GGG, but GGG was never destroyed. No one knows what that looks like, so it will be very new to everyone if it happens.
“I never said ‘go back to the body.’ I said he has to start working out because he’s not a body puncher. He probably hit him [Canelo] with four body shots in 24 innings. It’s not a body puncher.
“It won’t affect the body. We have to go check the body. We have to hit him everywhere. Arms, elbows, belly, chest, shoulders, everywhere. Hit him hard so he feels surrounded.
“It’s part of going to work. Let go and punch him. I’m not trying to replicate what he did in both games. I’m trying to get him up to speed and relax because I think that will benefit him more.
“I don’t care if you get tired at 10, 11 and 12,” Banks said when asked what he was doing to keep Golovkin from getting tired in the later rounds. “That’s the difference between 90% of the conditioning coaches you talk to.
“They said to one boxer, ‘We’re going to train so you don’t get tired.’ I don’t want to train a gladiator so they don’t get tired. I want you to be able to restrain yourself when you’re tired because you don’t know which fighter will hit you to the point where you’re tired.
“If you can maintain your composure and know how to fight when you’re tired, how hard will it be to beat a guy who stays calm when he’s tired?
“The goal is to go to work. We’re not worried about him [Golovkin] the gas tank because we saw it empty, and we saw it full. We did all this in the camp, and he had a full tank, and let’s go.
“It won’t matter when he runs out of gas because he knows how to fight. He fought in the gym the longest while he was tired. We pushed him. His aim and demeanor is to get in there and let go.
“He can’t afford to worry about anything else. I think G won the first teamfight, and I think the second match was closer to a draw. When you have a fighter going backwards, the referee will look at the fighter’s legs.
“When you look at the foot, you are assuming the boxer going forward will win. But the boxer punches backwards, does that mean the boxer moves forward to victory?
“No, that just means the direction the fighter is heading. If we’re fighting and you’re moving forward, and I’ll fall behind, rush at you and rush at you. Does that mean you’re winning? Yes, you are the invader. Why do you win the round when you don’t knock the punches?
“I’m knocking most of the punches. We work double, work triple, and shield all of our bases so GGG can let go for 12 innings.
“Our talks were the first two wars; you have to put them in your rearview mirror because that’s where they are. In other words, it doesn’t help that we have the same judges as the first two matches.
“It didn’t help that they didn’t give us the rounds most of the fans cheered for him [Golovkin] win. They didn’t even give it to him. They only gave him four innings. So that doesn’t help, but that’s for my consideration, not him.
“His job is to get in there and fight. The plan that we have should lead to Gennadiy winning the fight,” said Banks.
