Canelo Alvarez has brutally dismissed Gennady Golovkin's recent victory over Ryota Murata by claiming he is "never impressed" by his rival.
The Mexican star is set to face Dmitry Bivol on May 7 with a win likely to set up a third meeting with Golovkin. His former foe recently made his return to the ring for the first time in almost a year and a half to become unified middleweight champion with a stoppage victory over Ryota Murata.
Alvarez has admitted his rivalry with Golovkin remains personal and is focused on doing his bit to secure a third meeting with the Kazakh star later this year. "He did what he's supposed to do, win by knockout," Alvarez told FightHype. "I'm not impressed, but he looked good, he looked strong. But I was never impressed, even before. I was never impressed about him. He always says something about me, he always talks about me.
"So it's personal. First things first, we're talking about the Bivol fight. I need to win this fight and then we'll see."
Alvarez will make a bid to become light-heavyweight champion for the second time against Bivol next month, after making another 'bulky' transformation in weight. The plan will be for Alvarez to return to 168lb and defend his undisputed titles against Golovkin in September providing he prevails against the Russian.
The pair have met on two previous occasions with the middleweight champions fighting to a split draw in 2017, with judge Adelaide Byrd heavily criticised for her 118-110 scorecard in favour of Alvarez. The pound-for-pound king later outpointed his opponent in a rematch by majority decision with this victory also heavily disputed by fans.
Golovkin, 40, rallied to victory against Murata earlier this month to unify the middleweight division after a shaky start in Japan. He showed he still had the power to secure a knockout victory on the big stage despite concerns over his age.
However the Kazakh star has hit out at his rival Alvarez's "indecent" behaviour in the build-up to a potential trilogy dismissing the nature of any 'personal' rivalry. “I’ll be honest with you. If he believes it was something I said and that it was personal, where has he been all these years? Three or four years already," Golovkin told Ariel Helwani.
“If it’s personal, what has he been waiting for? Secondly, I have not said anything bad, whatever has been said was tied to those scandals, and he was the cause of those scandals. There were arguments and proof. It’s not me, it’s the entire world, If he believes I’m talking s***. That’s the entire world using the arguments and everything can be proven.
“For him to be making arguments now and framing it in this way it’s kind of low, I would say. It’s kind of mean. It’s indecent behaviour and I do not have any hate. I honestly don’t talk about him at all."
