Golovkin admits frustration in having to wait years for Canelo fight

Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez are finally set to duke-it-out on September 16th. But amidst all the excitement over the big fight, it can be rather easy to forget this fight was actually long time in the making.

Golovkin was ready and willing to take on Canelo at least two years ago, but he was time and again pushed off by Canelo and his Golden Boy promoter who weren’t ready to make the bout at that time — while often providing ridiculously transparent excuses of Canelo not being a legitimate middleweight at the time (despite Canelo often weighing as much or more than Golovkin on fight nights).

So as part of a HBO blog documenting the fight, Golovkin expresses his frustration in having to wait quite a while in order to make an obvious fight a reality:

“We have been talking about this fight for years. The last two years, I lose interest, because after every fight, Golden Boy said, 'No. OK, maybe next fight.' I remember the situation after the Amir Khan fight, when I go into the ring. Oscar De La Hoya said, 'This is a good day for us and I will call GGG's manager tomorrow.' I think it was hard on the fans too.

“The fans are hungry for this fight. After the Julio Cesar Chavez fight, I believed it is possible for us, and in June I see Canelo's face, and it is more serious. He is ready. This was not like Canelo not being ready. It was Golden Boy not being ready.”

Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez also says that he witnessed Golovkin’s frustration firsthand:

“I've never seen Gennady frustrated except when Sturm refused to fight him and the WBA kept giving him opportunities to avoid his mandatory obligation. I could also see him getting frustrated last year when three of the top middleweights (Canelo, Saunders, Eubank) wouldn't fight him and then Brook stepped up to the plate to save the day last September in London.”

All the waiting is over now, though, and the only real question is if Canelo has waited-out Golovkin long enough to now have the edge in the fight. Canelo, 27, is just hitting his physical prime, whereas Golovkin, 35, seems to have been showing at least some signs aging recently.

How much Golovkin has declined, if you in fact believe he’s declined at all, is still an open matter of debate — but it’s pretty safe to say that at his age, and in this sport, he certainly hasn’t been getting any better over the last couple of years.

We’ll find out for sure, one way or another, in just a few weeks on HBO PPV.