By Dan Ambrose: It’s not looking like IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) is going to give into Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s wish to have his fight against Golovkin staged at a catch-weight of 155lbs later this year.
Golovkin says that if Canelo must fight at 155, then he’s welcome to go ahead and fight at that weight, but he’s going to fight at the full weight of 160lbs for the middleweight division. Golovkin will not be giving Canelo a handicap by melting down to 155lbs in order to give him the advantage, even though Golovkin says he’s been weighing in at 164 and 165 recently.
Golovkin would only need to drop 10 pounds to take the fight at 155 for Canelo. However, Golovkin is an old school fighter, and he doesn’t believe in fighting at catch-weights. He’ll move down to fight at 154 for a fight against super star Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he won’t fight at a catch-weight. Canelo isn’t Mayweather when it comes to his popularity, and he likely never will rise to that level due to him lacking the ability to dominate the better opposition.
“My weight is not heavy. I’m 164, 165 every day,” said Golovkin to UCN Undisputed.
“Middleweight is 160. It doesn’t matter. Canelo wants 155; try it. I’m 160. I want unification fight against [Billy Joe] Saunders and hopefully Canelo. I want Canelo because he’s a good champion. He’s a big name for me. Good business, and for everybody for fans. I want big name so everybody understands who I am,” said Golovkin.
With Golovkin not willing to move down to 155 to give the hulking Canelo an advantage that he clearly doesn’t need, it’s setting up a face-saving scenario where Canelo can vacate his WBC middleweight title by telling the boxing fans and the media that Golovkin didn’t want to give him his catch-weight that he was asking for.
If Canelo refuses to fight Golovkin at the full weight for the middleweight division, then he will almost surely give up the WBC title or have it stripped from his by the WBC if he tries to test them by ignoring Golovkin. It’ll be up to Golovkin to decide whether he wants the Canelo fight bad enough to drain down to 155 to give him the handicap that he clearly doesn’t need at this point in his career.
Canelo has been rehydrating to the 175lb area; whereas Golovkin is weighing 165. Why then would Canelo need a catch-weight to fight Golovkin? It doesn’t make sense at all. Canelo will be rehydrating 20+ pounds from 155 to 175. Why then would he need a catch-weight handicap of 155 for the Golovkin fight? It just looks like to me like Canelo is hoping to gain an advantage of Golovkin, and if he’s not given that advantage, then he’ll vacate his WBC title or possibly dare the WBC to strip it from him.
There are some boxing fans who think the WBC won’t take the title from Canelo due to him being so popular. It would obviously be a move that the WBC would do after a lot of thought. They might not want to burn their bridges with Canelo because he’s going to be around for a long time. If Canelo gets upset, he could opt to go after other world titles for the remainder of his career rather than to fight for the WBC’s belts. That means no sanctioning fee money for the WBC for Canelo’s fights, and he’s a big money maker in the sport.
“The WBC has mandated that the winner of Canelo and Khan has to fight Gennady if he’s successful on April 23,” Loeffler said to UCN. “They’re going to have to fight him or they’re going to jeopardize their title. Basically the WBC will unrecognized them. It’s nothing personal against Canelo; Gennady just wants to unify with the WBC title, and he’s earned that right. If Canelo or the winner doesn’t fight him, then they’re in clear violation of what the WBC has mandated. Canelo has asked for one defense, which is what he’s doing now on May 7, but after that it doesn’t make sense anymore. So Gennady has earned the right to either fight for the WBC title or to get the WBC title as the interim champion,” said Loeffler.
Golovkin needs to win his next fight this month on April 23 against Dominic Wade (18-0, 12 KOs) at the Forum in Inglewood, California. The Golovkin-Wade fight will be televised on HBO Championship Boxing.
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