September 14, 2022 2:00 pm ET
Gennadiy Golovkin’s mission on Saturday is almost impossible.
Super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, who will face Triple-G a third time on pay-per-view at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, might be more vulnerable than usual after his one-sided loss to light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in May. His confidence had to take a hit.
And you can bet that Golovkin will be as motivated as he was going into his first two fights with Alvarez, maybe more so. At 40, this could be his last great opportunity.
Does that give him a good chance of upsetting his arch rival? Nah. Here’s why.
The eight-year difference between the fighters wasn’t an insurmountable factor when Golovkin was 35 and 36, his ages for his controversial draw and majority decision loss to Alvarez. Now it might be.
Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) began to show signs of decline in his unanimous, but close decision in October 2019 against rugged Sergiy Derevyanchenko, who pushed the then-37-year-old to his physical limits.
He rebounded to stop second-tier opponents Kamil Szeremeta and Ryota Murata (to win two middleweight titles) in December 2020 and th
