Canelo vs GGG 3 has been one of THE fights boxing fans dream of during the last four years – and against all odds it is finally and officially HAPPENING this weekend!
The pair were lined up to meet later this year – at long last – some four years on from their epic second fight.
But then along came Dmitry Bivol to wreck the script and beat P4P king Canelo with a masterful performance to retain his WBA light-heavyweight title.
After the fight Canelo said he wanted a rematch with Bivol, which would likely ruin any chance for now of the trilogy with Golovkin going ahead. Fast forward two weeks though and the Mexican megastar says his next fight WILL SURELY be vs GGG in September. Then just hours after that, we had the official announcement…
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Since they fought so thrillingly back in 2017 and 2018, Alvarez has made Golovkin wait for his opportunity to settle the score. ‘Big Drama Show’ remember drew their first meeting and lost the second – despite he and many experts believing he had won both. Such is boxing scoring, and politics.
Until May 7 it appeared the stage was finally set for the trilogy to finally go down. GGG defeated Ryoto Murata in Japan to keep up his side of the bargain, ‘all Canelo needed to do’ was beat Bivol and it was game on.
Clearly though a third fight with Golovkin is the biggest money showdown out there for Canelo – and there are scores to settle. And so the man from Guadalajara has made his decision. Get the popcorn ready.
Here is all we know right now about one of THE biggest fights of 2022.
Canelo vs GGG 3 Odds
We have official odds from online sportsbooks, and they are very different from the first two meetings between these men back in 2017 and 2018. Then we had Golovkin as favorite.
Now though Canelo is a firm -450 favorite (bet $450 to win $100) with BetMGM and Borgata to beat GGG again, while Golovkin is a +425 underdog (bet $100 to win $425) with bet365.
Don’t rule out the Draw either – their first meeting ended dead level while Canelo only won the rematch by a wafer-thin decision. If you do like stalemate again, it’s a +2000 chance.
Canelo vs GGG 3 Predictions, Picks & Best Bets
Our betting expert Buck Hickman has provided a full rundown on the big fight, and first of all he likes it to go the distance. Both these man have absolutely granite chins and cojones to match. Don’t expect an early night.
In short, Buck believes the still prime Canelo will have too much for a fading GGG, who at the age of 40 years old is now clearly on the downside of an epic run.
His argument is: “GGG is sadly nearing the end of a truly great career. There was a time when nobody – Canelo included – wanted to go anywhere near the devastating banger from Kazakhstan who was folding people up like deckchairs as he ripped through the middleweight division.
“However, time waits for no man, and this weekend GGG will learn the hard way you cannot chase a young man’s dream on middle-age legs.”
The bet is Canelo to win by Decision or Technical Decision at +105 and our full betting preview is here.
Fight Date & TV and Live Stream details
So the date set for Canelo vs GGG 3 is Saturday night – September 17, 2022. Mexican Independence Weekend. The bout will take place at T-Mobile Arena in Vegas, Nevada – which housed Canelo vs Bivol on May 7.
DAZN has the streaming rights to the bout in the U.S. and it will officially be part of the platform’s new PPV offering (Canelo vs Bivol was the trailblazer).
The price for new subscribers to DAZN is $84.98, while the bout will cost $64.99 for existing subs.
Fight time on September 17 is set in stone already – ring walks will take place between 11pm and midnight Eastern Time (between 8pm and 9pm Pacific).
DAZN has also set up an alternative stream powered by Barstool Sports, fronted by Dave Portnoy, Big Cat and co. That one starts 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific.
Canelo vs GGG 3 Tickets
Tickets for the big fight went on pre-sale using code MATCHROOM on Friday June 24, then to general sale Monday June 27 (Both at 10am) via http://axs.com. Tickets started from $305 plus fees.
Canelo vs GGG 3 Weights
The trilogy fight between Canelo and GGG will take place at super-middleweight with a limit of 168lbs.
All of Canelo’s super-middleweight titles – IBF, WBA, WBO, WBC and Ring magazine, will be on the line.
The weighin took place Friday in Las Vegas, with Canelo scaling 167.4lbs and Golovkin 168lbs.
Who are the judges for Canelo vs GGG 3?
We’ll tell you more on why in a moment, but the judges for this fight will be under huge scrutiny. Both of the first two fights ended with controversial scorecards and decisions.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission has appointed its three judges – and they are Dave Moretti, Steve Weisfeld and David Sutherland.
Moretti was a judge for both of the first two Canelo vs GGG fights, and he scored the first bout 115-113 Golovkin. You could easily argue he was the only judge who ‘got it right’! Moretti scored the second fight 115-113 Canelo and again we have no major issues with that. We also had Canelo winning a wafer-thin decision.
Weisfeld was also a judge for that rematch, and he too scored it 115-113 in favor of Alvarez.
Canelo vs GGG 3 Referee
Russell Mora will be the third man in the ring for this huge trilogy fight. It’s the fourth consecutive Canelo fight in Vegas that he has taken charge of.
Canelo vs GGG Scorecards & Results
The first meeting of the two then middleweight titans took place – with all of the alphabet titles on the line – in Las Vegas on Saturday September 16, 2017. It took place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and was televised on HBO PPV.
It was a terrific fight, with Golovkin starting strong and Canelo performing better down the stretch. But as they went to the scorecards, the perceived wisdom was that ‘GGG’ had won a clear decision after a really good fight.
When you add in the fact Compubox stats suggested Golovkin outlanded Canelo in 10 of 12 rounds, the howls of protest which accompanied the verdicts were pretty understandable. The cards were as follows:
- Dave Moretti: 115-113 Golovkin
- Adalaide Byrd: 118-110 Canelo
- Don Trella: 114-114 a Draw
So the result was a draw, and not surprisingly that Byrd scorecard raised derision from all corners of the fight community. A walking scoring meme no less. As for Golovkin, this result was the first blemish on his hitherto perfect professional resume.
As ever boxing lost but the money men won. We would now HAVE TO HAVE A REMATCH. Dollars and sense.
Canelo vs GGG 2 Scorecards & Results
A year on from that first meeting (a planned May 2018 date was scuppered when Canelo failed a drugs test for clenbuterol and was suspended) the two men did it all again. Again at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, again with a terrific fight (so good that Ring magazine voted it ‘Fight Of The Year’. And again, of course, it had a hotly-disputed result.
At least this time you could argue it was close, and you could argue with some conviction that Canelo may have sneaked the decision. Just don’t tell that to Golovkin or his legion of adoring fans though.
Canelo was way more aggressive than he had been in the first bout, and he controlled centre ring for good portions of the night. Both men again displayed granite chins as the action ebbed and flowed.
Inevitably, with neither giving an inch, it would again go to the cards with three judges deciding the outcome:
- Dave Moretti: 115-113 Canelo
- Steve Weisfeld: 115-113 Canelo
- Glenn Feldman: 114-114 a Draw
So Canelo prevailed by Majority Decision, and took Golovkin’s titles and his unbeaten professional record in the process. The howls of protest were again long and sustained, with most media picking Golovkin as the winner. This time it was not as clear-cut and there was no Adalaide Byrd scorecard to rip.
Surely we would get a third fight, right? Well yes and no. Big-spending streaming platform signed Canelo to a blockbusting $365million deal in 2018 with its stated ambition to pair him with Golovkin for the trilogy. It then signed up GGG to seemingly close the loop. So far though tying both men down has been tough.
Canelo actually left DAZN in 2020 after a split with his promoter Oscar De La Hoya, but returned soon after for three fights against Callum Smith, Avni Yildirim and Billy Joe Saunders. After his showdown with Caleb Plant aired on Showtime late last year he again signed with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom and DAZN in a reported $100million deal.
Canelo Alvarez Record & Stats
Boxing’s reigning P4P king Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, born in Guadalajara, Mexico on July 18, 1990, has a professional record of 57-2-2. Some 57 victories, just two defeats and two draws with 39 wins coming inside distance. His defeats came at the hands of modern great Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather Jr in September 2013 and then Bivol in May 2022.
Looking back, the now 31-year-old Canelo (he was then just 23) was way too raw for the brilliant and canny Mayweather – just not quick or smart enough to pin down the man from Grand Rapids. Against Bivol he just bit off more than he could chew – going up in weight against a talented fighter he just did not have the power to chop down.
Those losses apart though, Alvarez has been brilliant in a stellar professional career. Those two fights with Golovkin are just the tip of a huge iceberg. He has power, smarts and hugely underrated cojones. Oh, and a granite chin.
As well as Golovkin, Alvarez has defeated many of boxing’s top fighters in the last 15 years. His list of victims includes (among others) Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Daniel Jacobs, Amir Khan, Sergey Kovalev and the aforementioned Saunders.
Canelo had a stellar 2021, annexing all of the belts at super-middleweight. His banner year culminated with a knockout of Caleb Plant in their unification showdown in Las Vegas.
So far Alvarez has won world titles in four different weight classes – super-welterweight, middleweight, super-middleweight and light-heavyweight. He has talked of going for a fifth up at cruiserweight, but that plan appears to be on the back burner right now.
In terms of his physical traits, Canelo stands 5ft 7½ ins (1.71m) tall and has a reach of 70½ ins (1.79m).
Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin Record & Stats
Two-time world middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin – also known as ‘GGG’ or ‘Big Drama Show’ – has a terrific professional record of 42-1-1 with the only blemishes those two fights vs Canelo. A staggering 37 of Golovkin’s wins have come inside distance, a KO ratio of around 90 percent.
Those stats speak to the fearsome power of Golovkin, something that broke down and destroyed the features of many great fighters. Until he came up against the granite chin and will of Alvarez.
Golovkin was born in on April 8, 1982 and he turned 40 the day before his April 9 showdown with Ryoto Murata in Japan. A ninth-round stoppage win there extended Golovkin’s record number of successful middleweight title defenses to an incredible 22.
Born in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, Golovkin has carried all before him at 160lbs but now he faces his biggest test yet in September – at 40 years of age he must go up to 168 for that showdown with Alvarez.
Golovkin stands 5ft 10½ ins (1.79m) tall and has a reach of 70ins (1.78m).
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