Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin update

By Boxing News - 06/06/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya says he’s waiting for his fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s court case in Florida to end before he restarts negotiations with IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s promoters at K2 to see if they can negotiate a fight for 2016.

Canelo and Golden Boy have a lawsuit that they need to get out of the way first before negotiations can begin again with the Kazakhstan fighter. The good news for boxing fans is that court case is expected to be completed soon, according to De La Hoya. However, that does not mean that we’re going to see a fight between Canelo and Golovkin.

“I’m busy in Florida. Loeffler is over there in Europe doing his thing,” said De La Hoya to Fighthub. “I have to focus on this court case, which will end soon. After the case, I’m going to call Loeffler again and we can negotiate again and continue our negotiations and we’ll see how it goes. It all depends on how it starts and how it ends, and we’ll take it from there. Do I see it this year? It’s definitely a possibility. A fight of this magnitude, because I can build this fight to be huge so I can bring back those fans that Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather lost for us when they fought. You don’t negotiate a fight of this magnitude in a week or two weeks. It just doesn’t happen. So the fact that the WBC gave us a deadline or else it goes to a purse bid or else this, that. No. Canelo’s not in that position anymore, and therefore that’s why we did what we did,” said De La Hoya.

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For the fight to happen in 2016, Golovkin might need to agree to the 155lb catch-weight that Canelo has been fighting at. He also might need to agree to a purse split that is tilted heavily in Canelo’s favor. Now that Canelo no longer has the WBC middleweight title in his possession, he can give Golovkin a take it or leave it offer in terms of fighting him at a catch-weight of 155lbs and a purse split in the 90-10 or 80-20 region.

Golovkin would then need to decide how badly he wants the Canelo fight. Golovkin would still get a career payday if he received a 10 percent split of the revenue for the Canelo fight. However, if he loses the fight due to him being weakened after draining down to 155 to accommodate Canelo’s catch-weight request, then his career will potentially crippled.

It’ll be interesting to see if Golovkin can bounce back from a knockout loss to Canelo in the same way Canelo was able to bounce back from his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. I don’t think Golovkin’s career will ever recover from a loss to Canelo. That’s why he could be making a mistake if he drains down to 155 for the fight, because Canelo does not need the catch-weight given that he rehydrates into the 170s for his fights.

If Golovkin is drained, weak and vulnerable after draining don to 155, he might not be able to fight at high enough level to win. You have to remember that Golovkin is 34 now, and he’s not had to drain down to 155 for any of his fights. For him to do that against a younger fighter like Canelo, who has proven himself capable of making his weight without it hurting him, might be a risk that could backfire on him.

Golovkin has been waiting already for one year for a fight against Canelo. The fight doesn’t need to be built up any more than it already has been. Some boxing fans would interpret what De La Hoya is doing is greed based by wanting to let the fight build so that he can make it really huge. De La Hoya says the Golovkin-Canelo fight is “definitely a possibility.” That makes you wonder if there’s some fear on De La Hoya’s part about having his flagship fighter Canelo take the fight.

It’s a tremendous fight right now. By waiting until later, there’s more of a chance of the fight getting smaller due to Golovkin starting to age. All it’ll take is one bad performance from Golovkin in the coming fights for the interest in the Canelo-Golovkin fight to start dropping off dramatically. That’s why it’s important to make the fight happen no while Golovkin is at his peak. It’s not going to help if De La Hoya stalls and waits years before making the fight.