WBC Yet Again Confirms Cotto/Canelo Winner Must Face GGG

By Boxing News - 11/15/2015 - Comments

1-golovkin (4)By Timothy Bladel: World Boxing Council Mauricio Sulaiman has yet again stated the next fight for the winner of the Miguel Cotto versus Canelo Saul Alverez fight on November 21st will be Gennady Golovkin (GGG). Sulaiman ensures fans that no alternatives will be made, unless both parties reach an internal agreement.

“We can confirm that the winner must face our interim champion, Golovkin,” Sulaiman said via vivelohoy.com/deportes. “It’s a fight that has to happen, the winner cannot face someone else.”

Many fans have rightfully questioned if the WBC will go ahead and strip the winner of Cotto/Canelo, considering the actions of sanctioning bodies in the past. However, this is something different, because the WBC has backed itself into a corner on this one. Many fans doubt whether the winner will face GGG, especially considering the comments coming from Golden Boy Promoter Oscar De La Hoya.

“He’s not a middleweight. Look, he’s a junior middleweight,” De La Hoya recently said to fighthype about Canelo. “That’s what he is. He’s fighting Cotto at 155. These are the conditions that Cotto put. It was perfectly fine with him. He [Canelo] can make 155 easy. So when he’s ready to fight at 160, we’ll fight the very best at 160.”

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Many fans have come to the conclusion that De La Hoya is scared to put Canelo in the ring with GGG. And who can blame him after what GGG did to David Lemieux in his 8th round TKO. However, what we can know for sure is there will be a tremendous amount of pressure for Canelo to face GGG. And it looks like that pressure will come with some added motivation, because vacating or losing the WBC strap would not look good for Canelo.

It still remains to be seen if Golden Boy owned Ring Magazine would take similar action with the middleweight lineal title (the man who beat the man). At the very least GGG, who also owns the WBA/IBO/IBF world titles, will pick up the WBC title, bringing him closer to the coveted unification of all four major alphabet titles.

Many fans find De La Hoya’s stance confusing since Canelo has technically been fighting within middleweight for a few years. Anything above 154 is middleweight, and Canelo has not fought 154 or under since facing off with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo7PX5yho2A

With WBC’s Sulaiman once again ensuring fans that the Cotto/Canelo winner must defend against GGG, it looks like posturing will not get the winner out of the fight with GGG. They have three options, they can choose to fight, vacate the title and risk heavy blowback, or they can wait to be stripped of the title. Most hope the winner doesn’t just let GGG walk away with the title. That isn’t what warriors do.



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