UFC president, Dana White has claimed that last weekend’s trilogy title fight between middleweight kingpin, Canelo Alvarez, and former champion, Gennady Golovkin “happened too late” in the pair’s respective careers, as well as speculating on the reported buyrate as a direct result of late matchmaking.
Sharing the squared circle for the third time last weekend at the T-Mobile Arena, Canelo managed to turn in a one-sided unanimous decision win over three-time foe, Golovkin – after scoring a prior close decision win in the pair’s rematch.
Initially fighting back in September 2017, Canelo and Golovkin battled over the course of 12 rounds en route to a split draw, as pundits questioned the scorecards in both the first and second bout between the duo.
Speaking following last night’s Contender Series event at the UFC apex facility, promotional president, Dana White reacted to reports that Canelo x Golovkin 3 drew 575,000 pay-per-view buys, claiming that the reason likely comes due to untimely matchmaking in the pair’s rivalry.
“Yeah, 100 percent,” Dana White told assembled media during his post-fight media availability. “The fight (Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin 3) was too late. That fight should have happened four years ago.”
White’s comments come off the back of prior criticism from former boxing world champion and Golden Boy Promotions leader, Oscar De La Hoya – who lambasted Canelo’s performance and claimed Golovkin was too old to be competing at the highest level.
“The truth is everyone is afraid of speaking the truth, the fight (between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin) was a f*cking dud,” Oscar De La Hoya tweeted. “GGG was old ass (sic) f*ck and Canelo (Alvarez) can’t hold (Bernard) Hopkins’ jockstrap.”
Canelo Alvarez managed to rebound from defeat with his win over Gennady Golovkin
With this month’s win, Canelo rebounded from just his second career loss after he dropped a unanimous decision defeat against Dmitry Bivol back in May in a pursuit for the WBA light heavyweight crown.