Canelo vs. GGG: 5 keys for Gennady Golovkin

2. Steady pressure

Pressure is a hallmark of Gennady Golovkin’s style, and there’s perhaps no better fighter in boxing at cutting off the ring. Although Canelo Avlarez is an adept counter puncher, he’s far more effective when he has enough time to plant his feet and evade shots with slippery upper body movement. Canelo isn’t going dance around the ring on his toes firing off snapping shots from range. He’s a fighter who can set traps from the pocket or via selective retreating, which means Golovkin needs to impose narrowing ring geography on the Mexican.

Keeping Canelo moving or consistently eyeing an exit strategy will accomplish a couple of things right away: it will take the sting off Canelo’s counters, and it will start the important process of draining his energy. Canelo’s a highly intelligent fighter, but Golovkin’s footwork, especially against a heavy-legged foe, is so precise that Canelo may have to direct the majority of his mental efforts to simply trying to figure out how to find the correct range.

As such, Golovkin obviously needs to almost exclusively right off his front foot, especially early. This represents a crucial psychological element of the fight, as Golovkin needs to boss his superstar opponent around and divert Canelo’s focus away from productive offense. Canelo can handle pressure in the sense of dealing with a fighter who leads (in fact, he thrives on it); but can he cope with Golovkin’s eerie ability to stalk foes like wounded prey?

There were stretches in the Daniel Jacobs fight where Golovkin seemed to be pressing forward and running into flashy combinations and heavy shots because he was so intent on closing distance and scoring the knockout that seemed immanent in round four. Remaining steady against Canelo will be necessary. Sometimes subtler pressure — the threat of an actual assault and of quickly closing distance — can be just as effective and force a befuddled opponent to waste movement. This, combined with his selective ruthlessness, will anchor a Golovkin victory.