By Scott Gilfoid: With neither Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Miguel Cotto showing much interest in facing WBC interim middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs), World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman is stepping in to try and persuade the winner of the Canelo-Cotto fight to face Golovkin.
Sulaiman has already gotten Golovkin to agree to let the Canelo vs. Cotto fight to take place this year, even though Golovkin is the mandatory for Cotto and should be the one getting a fight against the 34-year-old Puerto Rican fighter once he gets past former IBF/WBA middleweight champion Daniel Geale in his voluntary defense on June 6th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The news today about Carl Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn saying that he’s in negotiations with Golovkin’s management for a fight between Froch and Golovkin makes it less important for Golovkin to get the winner of the Canelo-Cotto fight, but Golovkin is still obviously very interested in taking that fight if either of those two fighters can be convinced that they should fight him. I just don’t know if Sulaiman can get either of those two fighters to take on Golovkin right now or even in the future. I just don’t think it’s a priority for them in their careers. There are too many easy marks for Cotto and Canelo to fight for them to be putting their hides at risk by facing a killer puncher like Golokvin.
Sulaiman did his job getting Golovkin to agree to step aside for the Canelo vs. Cotto fight to take place, but it’s still not known if he’ll be able to get Canelo or Cotto to face Golovkin. That’s something that may be an undoable task for Sulaiman because there seems to be some resistance on Canelo and Golovkin’s part to take the fight against the big punching Golovkin.
“Cotto has to get by on June 6 (against Daniel Geale), there are already talks of a fight with Canelo September or October,” Sulaiman said via ESPN Desportes. “We have been in communication with Golovkin. He understands the importance of a fight [like] Cotto-‘Canelo ‘that was scheduled for May and did not happen. We are trying to mediate with all parties for two big fights, Cotto with ‘Canelo’ and the winner with Golovkin.”
It would be a big positive for the careers of Canelo and Cotto for them to take on Golovkin while he’s still in his prime rather than waiting until he’s an old man and is near toothless before choosing to fight him. Cotto, if he beats Canelo, he really needs to take the Golovkin fight because he’s really up there in age, and he doesn’t have anywhere to go after that. I mean, I don’t see the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao fighting him again, not with Cotto fighting in the middleweight division. I don’t see those guys fighting Cotto again even if he comes down to 154. Cotto would probably need to get down to 150 for him to get a fight against either of those two superstars and I don’t think Cotto is willing to do that at this point in his career.
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