By Patrick McHugh: The general belief is that Golden Boy Promotions doesn’t want their cash cow Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) to face IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 Kos) right now because the 25-year-old Mexican Canelo is making too much money fighting sure thing opposition like Amir Khan, Miguel Cotto, James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo.
The thought is that Golden Boy will only give Canelo the green light to fight Golovkin once their golden goose has laid enough golden eggs to the point where it won’t matter as much if he takes the fight and loses badly to Golovkin. The fortunes will have already been made by then, so it won’t hurt as much to see Canelo get beaten. However, the boxing wants to see Golovkin and Canelo face each other right now rather than wait for the fight to take place years from now when Golovkin is old and harmless for Canelo.
Three are a lot of fans that are still angry at having to wait five years to see what turned out to be a boring fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao last year in May 2015. The fans aren’t going to want to sit back and wait for the Golovkin-Canelo fight to take place. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya already dropped a big hint that he wasn’t ready to let Canelo fight Golovkin recently when he said that he wants to let the fight “marinate” more. That wouldn’t have been a big deal if Golovkin were in his early 20s instead of in his mid-30s. He’s too old now to wait for years for the fight to take place.
Canelo vacated his WBC middleweight title recently in a move that fans saw as a cowardly move for him to avoid the fight with Golovkin. Canelo explained that he was doing this because he didn’t want to deal with the deadline that the World Boxing Council had given him to wrap up the negotiations with Golovkin. However, the negotiations have not been going on since that time, so it leaves with the conclusion that Canelo didn’t like the pressure of being the WBC middleweight champion when it meant that he’d have to face Golovkin next rather than another welterweight that had zero chance of beating him like his last opponent Amir Khan. Canelo said he didn’t want to deal with “artificial deadlines” imposed by the WBC.
You can argue that it’s a good thing for the WBC that Canelo is no longer their WBC middleweight champion, because they no longer have to deal with watching the catch-weight fights at 155. With Golovkin the champion, he’s going to fight at the full weight for the division at 160 because he doesn’t believe in fighting at catch-weights.
It could be a mistake if Golden Boy and Canelo choose to drag the fight out with Golovkin far into the distant future rather than make the fight happen now. Canelo or Golovkin could get beaten by someone else along the way. It’s less of a chance with Golovkin because he’s looked so soli in all of his fights since his grueling win over Kassim Ouma five years ago in 2011. Every fight since then has been an easy one for Golovkin. With Canelo, it’s been different. He was beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, and he struggled in close/controversial wins over Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara.
Canelo hasn’t even bothered to fight the new lions in the 154lb division in the Charlo brothers and Demetrius Andrade. It’s hard to understand how Canelo can fight guys like Amir Khan, James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo, but not fight the Charlo brothers or Andrade. It just looks like Canelo being spoon-fed by Golden Boy in being put in safe fights against guys that he has a good chance of beating unless it’s a match-up that promises him a huge payday like in his bouts against Mayweather and Cotto.
Golden Boy and Canelo cannot afford to wait too long for the Golovkin fight because if they let this thing marinate too long, it’ll be spoiled with one of them getting beaten. Even now, Canelo is probably not capable of beating the best of the junior middleweights. Jermall Charlo and Andrade can probably beat him.
There was a short period where Canelo was thought to be the best in the 154lb division. You can’t say that now. It’s a 50-50 thing. The only reason I’m mentioning the junior middleweight division is because Canelo still sees himself as a 154lb fighter despite the fact that he rehydrates into the 170s.
Canelo is clearly a middleweight that calls himself a junior middleweight. My point is that Canelo cannot wait because he’s quickly turning into a fighter that is mainly popular for being popular rather than being populr because he’s seen as the best in the 154lb and 160lb divisions. Canelo is popular to his large fan base, but he’s not proven himself as the best in either division.
Golovkin waited a long time to get his shot at the WBC middleweight title. He was supposed to fight the winner of the Sergio Martinez vs. Miguel Cotto fight. But he took a step aside to let the Cotto vs. Canelo fight take place last November. Golovkin was supposed to fight the winner of that fight. Instead, Golovkin stepped aside again so that Canelo could fight welterweight Amir Khan.
The winner of that fight was supposed to defend the WBC title against Golovkin. Instead of agreeing to fight him, Canelo vacated his WBC title. Now everything is up in the air about whether there will be a Canelo vs. Golovkin fight next or if it will take place years down the line when the fight has been able to marinate properly. It just looks to some boxing fans that the reason why Canelo vacated his WBC title is so that he can avoid fighting Golovkin and continue to fight beatable guys that he can dominate with his superior size and strength.
The negotiations for the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight are supposed to continue in the next two to four weeks once Canelo’s lawsuit with former manager Felix Zabala has completed. We’re going to find out if that’s true.
Can't wait to get back in the ring pic.twitter.com/4MO1ULTrJD
— Gennady Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) May 26, 2016
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler isn’t sure whether the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight will happen. But he doesn’t wait to waste too much with his career waiting for the fight to happen. Loeffler wants to keep Golovkin busy fighting rather than sitting around spinning his wheels in trying to arrange a fight that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.
“I can’t put Gennady’s career on hold waiting for an answer,” Loeffler said to ESPN.com.
Loeffler plans on having Golovkin fight this September regardless of whether the Canelo fight is made or not. Loeffler has a Plan-B option of matching Golovkin against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in September if he can’t get the Golovkin fight. That’s the last of the middleweight titles that is not in Golovkin’s possession.
If Golovkin can win that belt, and then defeat WBA “regular” middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs in his next fight, then he can turn to Chris Eubank Jr., a popular fighter from the UK. Golovkin will also likely move up to super middleweight division to face the likes of Gilberto Ramirez, James DeGale, Andre Ward and Badou Jack. Canelo will have been forgotten once Golovkin starts focusing on facing super middleweights and light heavyweights.