Canelo Alvarez and Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin are two of the greatest fighters of their generation.
They shared the ring on several occasions between 2017 and 2022, producing one of the most entertaining and closely fought contests of all time in their first encounter which ended in a split decision draw, although most thought that ‘GGG’ should have had his hand raised
Their rematch took place exactly one year later, although it was Canelo who got the win on this occasion to capture the unified WBC and WBA world middleweight titles.
The trilogy bout between Canelo and Golovkin took place four years after the rematch, ending with Canelo having his hand raised once again after a dominant performance to successfully defend his undisputed super-middleweight champion and put their intense rivalry to bed.
One man who has shared the ring with both fighters is former IBF middleweight champion Danny Jacobs, revealing in an interview with DAZN Boxing that Golovkin was the better fighter out of the two, as well as admitting that the Kazakh legend was actually the hardest opponent of his career.
“Honestly I think my toughest opponent was GGG, out of both the guys he was a stronger guy and mentally he put that pressure on you to where physically you’re like it’s just so much to take on in one fight, he was a great champion, I believe I got the victory but nonetheless it was a great fight.”
Golovkin defeated Jacobs via unanimous decision in March 2017 to unify the WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight titles. This was the first time ‘GGG’ had been the entire twelve round distance in his entire professional career, having defeated his last 23 opponents prior to this inside the scheduled distance.
Jacobs also went the full twelve rounds and again lost out on the scorecards against Canelo back in 2019.
