Teddy Atlas on Gennadiy Golovkin: 'Looked like a shot fighter'

Is Gennadiy Golovkin shot?

Teddy Atlas, the Hall of Fame trainer, thinks so. He believes that it’s too late for a third fight between Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez for lack of interest among fans and because the 37-year-old Triple-G isn’t the fighter he used to be.

Golovkin and Alvarez agreed before the coronavirus pandemic took hold to fight one another in the fall, which presumably is what DAZN executives were hoping for when they signed the rivals.

“If you heard a giant sigh of relief somewhere it was coming from John Skipper and the other executives when finally … that third fight is done,” Atlas said on his show “The Fight.”

“Maybe it’s going to save a few people’s jobs over there … it actually does happen. So that’s the good news. Here’s the bad news. The bad news is it’s too late … Time has passed, people have moved on. … I don’t know that interest is there anymore for that fight.”

And Atlas believes Golovkin’s long amateur career, 42 pro fights, two taxing bouts with Alvarez and a war with unheralded Sergey Derevyanchenko in October have taken a lot out of him.

“ showed the heart of the warrior that he is,” said Atlas, referring to the Derevyanchenko fight. “He wasn’t right. Was it because he was sick, was it a fluke, was it an anomaly, was it that or was it what is now? An older fighter … that has left parts of himself in the ring and parts of himself from the first two Canelo fights.

“I thought those fights took a lot out of , and I think 400 amateur fights take a lot out of you. And I think when you’re at the age he’s at … what is he now? 38? He’s getting up there toward that number 40. I always say you don’t judge a fighter’s age in this tough business chronologically. You judge them by the tough fights they’ve been in.”

Atlas added a blunt commentary.

“In the Derevyanchenko fight, looked like a shot fighter,” he said. “Yeah, I said it. I said it, you people that want to get your knives out now and your bow and arrows ready. ‘How dare you say that about my guy.’

“It’s called Father Time, it’s called nature, it’s called aging, and it comes to all of us, but we all don’t have to fight for a living. … When the truth comes to you in the ring, the truth can hit you, bang, hard and fast.”