Former super middleweight and light heavyweight contender John ‘The Iceman’ Scully says that Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez reminded him of Floyd Mayweather Jr at times during his inaugural match-up with middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in September last year.
The 51-year-old boxing trainer from Hartford, Connecticut praised the popular 28-year-old Mexican’s performance in his first fight against the pound-for-pound rated Kazakh bomber, but questioned whether he has another performance like that in him.
“There were times in the fight when Canelo actually reminded me of Mayweather with his defence,” Scully said in an interview with On the Ropes Boxing this week.
“I was very impressed with his defence at times. Canelo couldn’t find that sweet shot, but by the same token, I wonder in my head if Canelo had that one night where he was really clicking and he was elusive. I wonder if he can do that again.”
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the first fight almost a year ago. Golovkin, 36, has fought just once, a two-round blowout of career junior middleweight Vanes Martirosyan in May. The Armenian-American stepped in at late notice after Alvarez was forced to withdraw from the scheduled May 5 rematch after twice failing drug tests conducted in February.
The Guadalajara counter-puncher tested positive for the illegal substance clenbuterol on both occasions, forcing the postponement of the rematch after he was banned from competing for a six-month period.
Team Alvarez blamed tainted Mexican beef for the positive drug tests. The September 15 rematch at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada will be Alvarez’s first fight in a year.
“He needs to capitalize on the mistakes,” continued Scully. “Last time ‘GGG’ was making mistakes and he countered but I think he was a little leery and he didn’t mix it up as much as he may have needed to.
“I think Canelo needs to be more offensive-minded when he’s counter punching and really get some damage done. He can’t allow Golovkin to just power his way forward the whole night.”
