Canelo: “I’m ready for Golovkin,” won’t vacate WBC title

By Boxing News - 11/22/2015 - Comments

canelo663222By Dan Ambrose: Newly crowned WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) says he has no intentions of vacating his WBC 160lb title if he’s told by the World Boxing Council that he must fight WBC mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin next.

Canelo says he’ll take the fight. However, when asked if he will require that Golovkin and other middleweights fight him at a catch-weight of 155lbs, Canelo dodged the question, saying “Right now I’m going to rest. But I will say this: I’m going to continue to do my best so that the people can enjoy my fights and enjoy boxing.”

It was kind of troubling that Canelo couldn’t answer a direct question about his stance on his future need for catch-weights in his fights, because this is something that boxing fans and fighters need to know.

Canelo said recently to the LA Times that he’s not a middleweight yet. His trainer Eddy Reynoso also said that Canelo will continue to fight at catch-weights of 155lbs, because that’s his weight. What this means, of course, is that it’s going to put Golovkin in a situation where he’ll either need to agree to the 155lb catch-weight if Canelo insists on using it for his title defenses, or Golovkin can refuse. If that happens, then the WBC will need to step in and strip Canelo of his WBC title for failing to defend the belt at the full weight for the division at 160. Canelo can’t force Golovkin to fight him at a catch-weight of 155, given that he’s the WBC mandatory challenger.

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“I’ll fight anybody anytime. I’m not afraid of anybody,” Canelo said when asked at the post-fight press conference if he’ll fight Golovkin next. “If you guys don’t believe me, I’ll get back in and go another 12 rounds.”

When asked if he’ll give up his WBC title if told by the World Boxing Council that he needs to fight Golovkin next, Canelo flexed his muscles and said “I’m ready.”

We’re going to find out pretty quick how serious Canelo is in being “ready” to defend his WBC title against Golovkin. If Canelo insists on using a handicap for his title defense against Golovkin by trying to force a catch-weight, then the WBC is going to need to do their job by stripping Canelo of the title.

It’ll be interesting to see if the WBC does this. Having Canelo as their champion has to be seen as a real positive for the WBC. Will the WBC turn their back on Golovkin and let Canelo force a catch-weight for all of his title defenses, even his mandatory defenses, or will they do their job and strip Canelo of the belt and give the title to Golovkin? Like I said, we’re going to find out really soon. Canelo has 15 days to make a decision whether he’s going to defend the title or not.

Golovkin saw Canelo’s fight last night and had this to say to Fighthype.com “Nice fight. Good fight. Both great job. It was a very close fight. I’m ready!”

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The Cotto-Canelo fight was a lot closer than the wide scores the three judges handed down for the fight. I had Canelo edging Cotto by a close margin, but the judges scored the fight 118-110, 119-109, and 117-111. That just seems wrong. There’s no way that Canelo won the fight by those sad scores. Those wide scores reminded me a lot of the lopsided scores for the Canelo vs. Austin Trout fight in 2013 and the 114-114 score given by one of the judges for the Canelo vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight in 2013.



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