With Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao far behind us with little to no interest in a rematch, the boxing world is waiting for the next superfight that pits the biggest and best names in the sport against each other. In our mind, a fight that qualifies is the growing feud between 49-1-1 Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and 35-0 Gennady ‘Triple G’ Golovkin.
Canelo’s promoter Golden Boy has been somewhat hesitant to agree to that fight, perhaps because Golovkin is an extremely risky fight and not as big of a name as Alvarez. But owner Oscar De La Hoya wants to reassure everyone that a fight between Canelo and Triple G will go down … it’ll just take some time for Alvarez to move up in weight to do it.
“As of today, Canelo is a 154-lb fighter,” De La Hoya said. “He only fought for a Middleweight championship because fans wanted a fight with Miguel Cotto, and Canelo delivered by winning that fight convincingly. I have been clear that Canelo will fight Golovkin at 160 pounds and we have a verbal agreement to do it in the fall of 2017. But in the meantime, Canelo is going to build up to being a true middleweight.”
“The plan is to face [Liam] Smith – a big, bruising 154-pounder – on September 17th, and if Canelo emerges victorious, to start making his way up to 160 pounds and fight Golovkin on equal turf (in terms of weight). We envision Canelo doing a third fight in 2016 either at or close to the middleweight limit and then a fight on Cinco De Mayo at 160 before facing Golovkin in the fall.”
This plan also has the unmentioned bonus of giving Golovkin another year to grow his name and build more hype for the eventual showdown with Canelo. Wanting to make as much money as possible off a dangerous fight is a perfectly reasonable … so long as we don’t see the same kind of endless delays we had with Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.
“I know Canelo/Golovkin is the biggest fight to make; the fighters know it’s the biggest fight to make; and the fans know it’s the biggest fight to make,” De La Hoya said. “Everyone agreed that a fight for the middleweight championship should take place at the middleweight limit and once Canelo builds up to that weight, the fight will be on.”
Meanwhile, we’ve got Conor McGregor moving from 145 pounds up to 170 pounds without batting an eyelash. But fine. Take a year and slowly build up that six pounds to meet Golovkin at 160. Just don’t jerk us around when the time finally comes to make this fight happen.
