By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya is saying that a fight between his guy Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and unbeaten Gennady “GGG” Golovkin could take place this fall depending on what happens on Canelo’s next fight on May 7 against Amir Khan. De La Hoya says he’ll meet with Canelo the next day on May 8 and the decision will be made about which direction the 25-year-old Mexican star will go in. De La Hoya says the fight will take place soon.
I think it’s obviously important for Canelo to take the fight against Golovkin soon, because there’s too much risk of the fight imploding if Canelo loses another fight. Canelo isn’t one of thoe guys that has a ton of talent to where he can be counted on to win by a slam dunk each time he fights. We saw how Canelo almost lost to Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout. Many boxing fans thought Canelo did lose those fights.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. totally schooled three years ago in beating him by a one-sided 12 round decision. While some blame Canelo’s loss on him being young a possibly weight drained, there are very few fans that believe that Canelo would be able to get the better of Mayweather even now with Canelo being in the prime of his career.
“Is that fight going to happen?” De La Hoya said about the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when, and it’s going to happen soon. Obviously the million dollar question is when is the Golovkin fight going to happen. We’ll known on May 8. Hopkins will fight anybody, but Golovkin didn’t want to fight him. Hopkins will make anybody look bad. Golovkin made a title defense. Canelo is making a title defense. On May 8, we’re going to sit down and discuss what the next option is. Can it be a Golovkin fight? Why not? Can it happen in the late fall? We cannot discuss any fight while he [Canelo] has Amir Khan, who I see as dangerous and a tricky fighter. He can present a lot of problems for Canelo. That’s exactly why I put a rematch clause in place because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said De la Hoya.
I’m kind of suspicious about De La Hoya’s motives in him suddenly talking up a Canelo vs. Golovkin fight now that there’s less than two weeks to go before Canelo’s fight against Amir Khan on May 7. Is De La Hoya trying to get more people interested in paying to see the Canelo-Khan fight by talking about a fight potentially for Canelo against Golovkin in the fall? I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what De La Hoya is doing. But instead of the fans seeing that fight, we could get the old bait and switch with Canelo winding up fighting Miguel Cotto again or possibly another welterweight.
De La Hoya better think seriously about making the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight very soon, because there’s going to be pressure on Canelo from his fans to make that fight. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez believes that Canelo will lose a lot of his fans if he doesn’t take the fight with GGG. I think Sanchez is right. But Canelo could lose to one of these other fighters he faces while letting the Golovkin fight marinate.
If Khan doesn’t beat Canelo on May 7, then someone like Miguel Cotto could pull off an upset if he winds up as the one that faces him. Manny Pacquiao could be a possibility for Canelo as well, and that’s a fight that Canelo could definitely lose if Pacquiao uses a lot of speed and mobility to keep Canelo from landing his big shots.
“He [Golovkin] did what he had to do against an opponent that wasn’t championship level,” said De La Hoya. “He looked good doing it.”