By Dan Ambrose: Abel Sanchez, the trainer for Gennady Golovkin, says WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez only has one options available to him if he wants to keep his WBC middleweight title after his May 7th fight against Amir Khan. If Canelo is still in possession of his WBC title, then he’ll need to decide whether he wants to fight #1 WBC mandatory challenger Golovkin at the full weight of 160lbs or not.
If Canelo chooses to try and push a catch-weight of 155lbs on Golovkin, Sanchez says that they will not agree to that. Canelo will then either have to vacate his WBC title or get stripped of it for failing to defend it against Golovkin at the full weight.
Canelo has recently said that he’s comfortable at 155, and that he doesn’t have to do what Golovkin wants him to do. However, it doesn’t look like Golovkin is going to give in and fight Canelo at the 155lb catch-weight that he wants him to. Sanchez says their only focus is getting the WBC middleweight title. They’re not focused on Canelo. This means that if Golovkin doesn’t care about Canelo, then he can’t be persuaded to fight him at a catch-weight of 155lbs.
“As far as the Canelo fight, it’s not really Canelo that we’re after,” said Sanchez to Thaboxingvoice. “We’re after the WBC belt. Gennady has made it clear to the team that he wants to be the unified champion, and Canelo holds the WBC belt. The WBC has mandated that he has to fight after the 7th. They have to decide whether they want to fight Gennady or not. Canelo is not the important one, it’s the WBC belt. Once he gets all the middleweights belts and unified the titles, then if Canelo wishes to fight him. If He doesn’t fight him this time, and fights him in 2017, so be it. Now the belts are what’s important to him,” said Sanchez.
If Golovkin, Sanchez and promoter Tom Loeffler are going to take this stance towards capturing the WBC middleweight title, then there’s not much Canelo can do but either agree to fight Golovkin at the full weight of 160lbs for the middleweight division or vacate the belt. The third thing Canelo can do is wait to see if the World Boxing Council will strip him of his WBC strap. In theory, Canelo could ignore Golovkin completely after he hears that he’s not interested in fighting at 155, and then go ahead and schedule a fight against someone else with the WBC title at stake. This would force the WBC organization’s hand to either make a move and strip the highly popular Canelo of his trap, or close their eyes and bend to his wishes. I have a feeling that Sanchez has misjudged the WBC.
I think they’ll give in to Canelo, and let him fight whoever he pleases if Golovkin doesn’t agree to give him the catch-weight handicap that he wishes. I hope for the sake of boxing that the WBC doesn’t just let Canelo fight whoever he wants if Golovkin doesn’t give him his weight handicap, but I think that’s what we’re going to see. Canelo is a young fighter at 25 with years ahead of him in his career. Golovkin is about to turn 34-years-old next month on April 8. At best, Golovkin might have four good years left in his career. Canelo has probably got another 10 to 15 more years. That’s a lot of time for the WBC to collect sanctioning fees from Canelo if he continues to be their champion for that period of time.
“What I’m disappointed in is he’s fighting for a middleweight title, but he’s not fighting a middleweight [Khan],” said Sanchez about Canelo. “He’s dictating terms as far as what weight guys can fight at. If he wishes to fight at 155, and it’s a 160lb belt, then let the opponent come in at 160. The opponent should come in at 160, because it’s a middleweight title. The WBC rules states the middleweight title is at a maximum of 160 pounds. That could be a point where he [Canelo] starts to argue, be a diva and cry about it, but we are not fighting at 155 pounds for a 160-pound title. It’s not killing himself not to have to fight at 160 pounds; it’s killing himself so not to have to fight Golovkin, because if Golovkin wasn’t there, he would be fighting at 160. There’s no threat. Because Golovkin is there, he has to have a reason why I’m a 154 pounder, not 160-pounder. But he’s insulting the memories of all the great champions and the great Mexican legends that fought at the weight. If they were a featherweight, they fought at featherweight. They weren’t dictating terms of a weight. I think that’s where the word diva gets tossed around. Unfortunately for Canelo, he has a big fan base in Mexico expecting big things from him and this is not given them what they expect from a Mexican warrior,” said Sanchez.
I don’t think Canelo is going to cry and complain like Sanchez thinks he will if he doesn’t get his way with the 155lb catch-weight for the Golovkin fight. I see either Canelo giving up the WBC title on the spot, or the WBC letting him pick the weight of his choosing for his title defenses, as long as it’s between 155 and 160. If Canelo does lose his WBC title for whatever reason, he has plenty of other belts to go after. He can target the WBA regular middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs or go after WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders. Canelo might even move down to 154 to fight WBO champion Liam Smith.
I don’t see Canelo fighting IBF champion Jermall Charlo. He might be too dangerous. The WBC 154lb title is vacant at the moment. If the WBC keeps it that way for a while, then Canelo can fight for that belt if he loses his WBC middleweight belt. I still think it’ll be difficult for Canelo to keep cutting weight to get down in the mid-150s, but if he wanted to prove a point, he could certainly show his star power by immediately going after the WBC’s junior middleweight title. He’d have to fight someone like Jermell Charlo, and that wouldn’t be an easy fight. Jermell has less punching power than Jermall Charlo, so it would be a winnable fight for Canelo.
“We’ll see after the 7th [of May] what he decides. If he decides not to fight Canelo for whatever reason, I’m sure Golden Boy and Canelo will go on to other fights, but we’ll see how the Mexicans fans react,” said Sanchez. “The middleweight limit is 160 pounds, and he’s fighting for the middleweight championship against Khan. I think this is bad for boxing. There goes our weight division. We have 17 right now. To have another one is crazy. Then we’re going to have somebody wanting to fight at 164 because 168 is too big. I don’t agree with what he’s doing. But on May 7th, will be the telling day. 15 days after that, he has to make a decision. If you look at all the interviews, Canelo has said ‘yes,’ I want to fight Golovkin, but I am a 155 pounder.’ That’s kind of like the excuse out. Golden Boy has said it’s going to happen; it’s going to happen. They could be setting it up for it to happen in 2018 or 2020. If it’s not going to happen, then we’re going to go about our business and keep fighting three to four times per year,” said Sanchez.
Comments are closed.