(Photo credit: World Boxing Council) By Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) does not seem to be too patient about waiting for his unification fight against Golden Boy Promotions flagship fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs). Golovkin wants the fight with Canelo right now rather than waiting for it to take place later this year in September.
Unfortunately, for Golovkin and the boxing world, he is going to need to wait until later this year before he’ll have the chance for his promoters at K2 Promotions to sit down with Golden Boy Promotions to try and put together a fight between him and Canelo.
Even if the negotiations do take place between the two promotional companies, there is no guarantee that the fight will take place. Canelo and Golden Boy have a good thing going right now with Canelo being able to pull in huge amounts of fans with his fights against lesser fighters. There is an almost an inexhaustible supply of different fighters that Golden Boy can match against Canelo before they hit rock bottom and need to put him in with Golovkin.
"@Canelo wants to fight everyone, he wants to fight GGG. That fight will be seen by everybody. It will happen"
@OscarDeLaHoya
— World Boxing Council (@WBCBoxing) January 11, 2016
Then let's do this @canelo why wait? https://t.co/CyxnNwGiZM
— Gennady Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) January 11, 2016
One gets the sense that Golovkin wants the fight with Canelo more than he wants the fight. There is not as much urgency on the part of Canelo to take this fight because he has so many other options available to him. Canelo can fight a rematch with Miguel Cotto and likely pull in another 900,000 pay-per-view buys the second time around. With Canelo having beaten Cotto last November, it means he’ll be able to get a better deal with Cotto the second time around.
Golovkin’s promoters are in negotiations with the promoter for WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders right now to try and put together a unification fight for April. If that fight is not made, then Golovkin will be in the ring with Tureano Johnson next. He’s his IBF mandatory challenger.
Canelo will be fighting on May 7th in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will be televised on HBO pay-per-view. This is the voluntary defense that the WBC recently said Canelo can take before his title defense against Golovkin.
It would be in Golovkin’s best interest not to become optimistic on fighting Canelo because it won’t be surprising if Golden Boy Promotions pulls the rug out from under that fight this year, and instead lets it marinate like Floyd Mayweather Jr. said he would do if he were the one being in charge for Canelo. Mayweather has already beaten Canelo once in his career in 2013, and if he gets beaten by Golovkin, it will be a huge defeat for Canelo.
If the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight does take place this year, I think it’ll be a huge fight with over 2 million pay-per-view buys generated. However, if Golden Boy waits until Golovkin is older and past his prime, then I see the interest in the fight being minimal.
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