By Dan Ambrose: WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin says he’s waiting to get a fight for the WBC 160 pound title against either Miguel Cotto or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Golovkin is ready to fight either of those guys unless they opt to vacate the WBC title.
The Cotto-Canelo fight could take place on May 2nd unless there’s a problem with the negotiations that keeps the fight from getting made in the first half of 2015. If that’s the case, then we could see Cotto take an optional title defense instead while he waits on the Canelo fight.
It’s safe to say that Cotto isn’t going to take the Golovkin fight before he gets the big payday against Canelo. That fights comes first.
“Right now, I’m the WBC interim [middleweight champion,” Golovkin said via IFL TV. “Miguel Cotto, he’s the WBC regular [champion]. I think it’s a very close situation for us. It’s a very important time for us now,” Golovkin said.
Golovkin has a fight against #1 WBC Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) on February 21st at the Salle des etoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco. Murray is ranked No.1, but the fight is really little more than a tune-up fight for Golovkin to keep him ready for when the Cotto vs. Canelo fight takes place.
That’s the fight that Golovkin really wants. It’s the fight that will be Golovkin’s first pay-per-view bout and easily the biggest payday of his boxing career.
What we don’t know is if the winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight will opt to fight Golovkin or instead choose to vacate the title. It’s considered thought that Canelo will vacate the WBC title rather than defend it if he wins the belt, because he wants to stay at 154 for some reason, even though he balloons up to the 170s after he weighs-in for his fights at junior middleweight.
Canelo is in a good position if he can stay at junior middleweight to get fights against guys like Floyd Mayweather Jr, Manny Pacquiao and other smaller fighters than himself.
If Canelo stays at middleweight then he’ll be put in the position where he’ll have to fight Golovkin and the other big names like Peter Quillin, Daniel Jacobs, Andy Lee and Jermain Taylor. Some of those fights are winnable ones for Canelo, but then again some of them are ones where he could get out-boxed or knocked out.
It would be a cruel joke if the winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight vacates rather than fights Golovkin, but it’s also a very real possibility. Cotto moved up to middleweight in order to just win a world title and add another division belt to his collection. He picked out arguably the easiest of the current champions in Sergio Martinez, who was coming off of two surgeries on his right knee.
It was never thought that Cotto would keep the WBC 160 pound title, and for that reason it wouldn’t be surprising if he vacates rather than fights Golovkin.
otto’s fight against Sergio Martinez was at a catch-weight, and his proposed fight against Canelo will likely be at a catch-weight as well. In other words, Cotto is the WBC middleweight champion, but he’s not fought at the full weight for the division and his next fight probably won’t be at the full weight either.
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