Gennady Golovkin has questioned why it took so long for his third fight against Canelo Alvarez to take place - whilst offering a theory for the Mexican's insults towards him.
Alvarez will take on bitter rival Golovkin for the third time on Saturday night in Las Vegas as both men aim to put an end to their feud. Alvarez looks to defend his undisputed super-middleweight title for the first time and pick up his first win of the calendar year having lost out in his jump up to 175lb against world champion Dmitry Bivol in May.
Golovkin has been labelled an "a**hole" by Alvarez in the lead up to their trilogy fight, with the Mexican accusing him of pretending to be a nice guy and putting on a front for the cameras. Alvarez thinks the Kazakh has split personalities and insists their fight is personal because of comments Golovkin has made. 'Triple G' thinks Alvarez has tactically waited until the last fight on his deal with DAZN to fire off insults in his direction.
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"He has the right to say that it's personal, I think that he says it because this is [my] last fight on DAZN. There is an agreement with DAZN and after that there'll be no obligations. He thinks he his in a position, because a lot of time has passed, that he can voice those accusations and that he can knock me out," Golovkin told reporters.
Golovkin considers himself undefeated against Alvarez having lost a controversial decision to his rival in their 2018 rematch. The pair met for the first time the year before that, fighting to a majority draw in yet another questionable decision. Five years on from their first meeting, Golovkin thinks a trilogy fight should have happened a lot sooner if Alvarez has such a genuine distaste for him.
"Who is he to start or finish anybody's career? Maybe he just tries to score some points but based on his age and position it's not up to him," he continued. If he wanted this fight back then if he thought it was personal then it should have happened immediately. Why was he waiting for four years?"
Alvarez said he wanted to rematch Bivol instead of facing Golovkin again, but his contractual obligations forced him into the trilogy fight."I really wanted the rematch in September [against Bivol] but my promoter Eddie Hearn said we have a contract to fight Gennady Golovkin in September and we need to do that fight," he said. "So that is why we are here and I am happy. I think it is a great moment."
