Saul Alvarez did not notice any particular weaknesses Gennady Golovkin during his last fight against Ryota Murata. Golovkin got off to a slow start in this encounter and missed numerous hits from the Japanese during the first four-plus rounds. The native of Kazakhstan fought his first fight in almost 17 months, but ended up stopping Murata in the ninth round.
According to Alvarez, the 40-year-old Golovkin looked like the old fighter, not the old one. Alvarez discussed Golovkin's latest performance with a small group of reporters on Tuesday at the MGM Grand following their ceremonial "arrival" for Saturday's third fight at the T-Mobile Arena.
“He did a really good job,” Alvarez said. - He is the same fighter. He is strong. He takes hits. He hits hard. So he's a good fighter, just like before."
Judges Robert Hoyle (79-73), Glenn Feldman (78-74) and Alex Levine (77-75) favored Golovkin against Murata after the first eight rounds. Referee Luis Pabón stopped their fight at 2:11 of the ninth round when Murata's trainer threw in the towel just as the countdown began after the knockdown of his protégé.
Murata, who lost the WBA title to Golovkin, lost for the first time as a professional, although he exposed some of Golovkin's defensive flaws and landed some hard shots. At the same time, Alvarez believes that Golovkin was not afraid of the strength of his opponent when he missed his punches at the beginning of their 12-round fight.
"I think he missed a lot because Murata doesn't hit hard," Alvarez said. "That's why he's like, 'Okay.' I think so, although, in fact, of course, I don’t know for sure.”
