By Dan Ambrose: WBC interim middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0 30 KOs) is supposed to be fighting for the WBC middleweight title next against the current catch-weight belt holder Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs), but instead of Golovkin getting his mandatory shot, Cotto is looking to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez next, who doesn’t even fight officially in the middleweight division.
Canelo definitely fights more now at middleweight than he does at junior middleweight, but that’s unofficial and he still calls himself a junior middleweight, even though he stopped fighting in that weight division two years ago.
Golovkin should be getting a title shot right now against Cotto, but he’s willing to let that fight between Cotto and Canelo go ahead, if it can be made, with the hope that the winner of the fight will then look to face him next. But I think this is a mistake on Golovkin’s part.
If he doesn’t get something written contract form that states that the winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight will face him, then Golovkin should look to block that fight from taking place with the WBC middleweight title on the line. Golovkin obviously can’t block Cotto from fighting Canelo, but he can block it being for the WBC middleweight title.
Since I don’t see Cotto or Canelo agreeing to sign a contract saying that they’ll fight Golovkin after their fight, then I think Golovkin should elect to force the World Boxing Council to remove Cotto’s title when/if he does face Canelo next. I think that’s probably the only way Golovkin is going to get a shot at the WBC 160 pound title, because no way do I see Canelo or Cotto fighting him next.
If Cotto beats Canelo, it’s pretty obvious that he’ll then look to face Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year rather than face Golovkin. Just in looking at how Cotto froze and started stuttering when asked by HBO’s Max Kellerman if he’ll agree to fight Gennady Golovkin in the near future after the Canelo fight, one could see that Cotto didn’t fancy the fight.
If Canelo beats Cotto, there’s no way Canelo will fight Golovkin. Canelo has said repeatedly that he’s not a middleweight, and that he won’t fight Golovkin until he is fighting in the middleweight division. The argument doesn’t make sense when you realize that Canelo weighs the exact same as Golovkin after he rehydrates to the mid-170s for his fights against junior middleweights.
Canelo is also trying to fight a middleweight in Cotto, although Cotto doesn’t call himself a middleweight. He clearly is though. Cotto is a small middleweight, and so are Golovkin and Canelo. Pretty soon you’ll be able to say Canelo is a big middleweight once he starts rehydrating to the 180s. Right now he’s at 175 after rehydrating, which makes him a light heavyweight when he gets inside the ring against junior middleweights.
Like I said, I think Golovkin should insist that Canelo and Cotto sign a contract stating that the winner of their fight will face Golovkin next. If they refuse to sign the contract, it will show you that they don’t have any intentions of facing the Kazakhstan star. Golovkin could then look to have Cotto stripped of his WBC title for failing to defend the title against him next. It’s supposed to be Golovkin who is getting a title shot now, not Canelo.
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