If you are like me, you are thinking, more hoping maybe than thinking, but feeling like the sequel might be better than the original.
The September 15 faceoff between Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez just might be a better version of the scrap we saw them engage in last year.
Now, how often are sequels better than originals? Godfather fans might tell you it happens now and again, while Ward-Gatti devotees will say yeah, no, rarely is the re-do surpassing the first classic.
OK, but the first GGG v Canelo was no Godfather 1 or Ward-Gatti I — it was not a classic.
Compelling prize fight, sure, but no KO, no knockdowns, controversial decision. It was, like many over hyped events, something between a little letdown and a solid span of time and money spent.
This one, though, my gut tells me there will be more and better bang for the buck. Why? Because I think actual passion and emotion is more likely to flourish at T-Mobile this time.
Now, I could be getting hooked on the hype, that can happen to me, just like it does you.
But I don’t know, I for real think Canelo does not dig being publicly labeled a cheater. And this is a referendum on him, largely. He’s skinnier this time, and if he loses, there will be no shortage of those assuming he had a supplement edge in their first fight. If he loses with that skinnier frame, GGG gets that last laugh on him.
But if he wins, he can prove that demonstrably, off any shady supplements, he’s a master practitioner. A win shuts up GGG, and brings Canelo to the lead of the pack in boxing, no one within sniffing distance. (At least until Errol Spence and Terence Crawford face off.)
Another reason I’m hoping and thinking the sequel gets five stars is how Abel Sanchez has been talking.
“I have to make sure that he understands how bad he looked, how bad he looked in not knocking him out,” said the trainer to GGG in the 30 minute docu-mercial for the PPV tango. “I’m gonna drive that point home, because I need to piss him off.”
“He has to do something that is so out of this world, that they can’t rob it from him again,” said Sanchez, leading me to think he really, truly will be pushing GGG to be a bit more of an angry terminator this time, be a bit more ruthless and reckless.
Talk to me, friend: you see this as I do? Will the sequel surpass the original?
Listen to Woods’ podcast. This week’s episode features a bombshell interview with an ex heavyweight contender who tells us that EVERYONE was using PEDs back in his day.