By Norm Frauenheim-
LAS VEGAS – It was more fracas than Face-off and perhaps it was a hint at the sort of violence some have promised and many more expect.
After months of avoiding even eye contact, Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin finally stood in front of each, forehead onto forehead, while their respective cornermen pushed, shoved and circled like the outer bands of an incoming storm.
Finally, there were tangible signs that all of the insults really were motivated by mutual contempt. Golovkin and Canelo, GGG trainer Abel Sanchez and Canelo’s father-and-son corner of Eddy and Chepo Reynoso really don’t like each other. A crowd of about 9,000 at T-Mobile Arena Friday for the formal weigh-in before the middleweight rematch Saturday night almost saw a choreographed ritual turn into an off-the-scale brawl.
Sanchez stepped between the fighters. Then, Eddy Reynoso appeared to put a hand on Sanchez’ shoulder. Sanchez was pulled away from Eddy, who then began to scream at a rival trainer who has been mocking Canelo ever since his positive test in February for a steroid Canelo says came from eating tainted Mexican beef. Triple G’s trainer is calling Canelo “Triple C, “Canelo Con Carne.’’
Eddy started waving his arms at Sanchez. Then, Chepo started shouting. Finally, cooler heads prevailed. The scrum ended, even if the shouting didn’t. Perhaps, there was enough wisdom amid all of the hostile emotions to know that only the fighters can settle this with controlled violence scheduled to begin on an HBO pay-per-view telecast at about 8 p.m. PT (11 p.m. ET).
When asked what he saw when he looked into Canelo’s eyes, Golovkin said he saw a clown.
The clown, GGG (38-0-1, 34 KOs) said, will “see real war. Not regular fight. Special war. I want knockout.”
There was no clowning around in the rhetorical counter from Canelo.
“I defeated the weight’’ Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) said. “Now, it’s time to defeat him.’’
The trip to the scales was almost an afterthought. Both fighters were right under the 160-pound limit – GGG at 159.6 and Canelo at 159.4.
GGG, who looked weary at a news conference Wednesday, entered the arena with a familiar smile that always seems to say: What, me worry? On the scale, he looked a fighter who had trained to withstand big combinations and throw many of his own, including some of the body punches that were missing in his controversial draw with Canelo a year ago. In their first fight last September, GGG was credited with landing only eight body shots.
In Canelo’s trip the scale, he looked lean, leaner than he was a year ago. That raises inevitable suspicions about whether clenbuterol had been a factor in what appeared to be a more heavily-muscled upper body. Whatever the reason, a leaner Canelo is a sign that he hopes to augment his speed. Neither fighter is quick. But Canelo’s hand speed appears to be an advantage over GGG.
“Speed is important, especially against a fighter as slow as Golovkin,’’ said Canelo, who has hinted he would not be lured into risky brawl by Sanchez long-running commentary.
Sanchez has repeatedly said that he hopes Canelo fights “Mexican-style.’’ Sanchez suggests that he ran away from GGG last September. Since then, Canelo has undergone surgery on his right knee. A cyst was reportedly removed. The procedure was called cosmetic, which is one thing this rematch won’t be. It started to look very real Friday.
The pay-per-view portion of the card is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) with former pound-for-pound champ Roman Gonzalez (46-2, 37 KOs) in a comeback at super-flyweight against Mexican Moises Fuentes (25-5-1, 14 KOs)
There are to other PPV bouts – middleweight David Lemieux (39-4, 33 KOs) against Spike O’Sullivan (28-2, 20 KOs) in a heated rivalry and emerging junior-middleweight Jamie Munguia (30-0, 25 KOs) of Mexico against Canadian Brandon Cook (20-1, 13 KOs).