By Patrick McHugh: Gennady “GGG” Golovkin has competition in trying to be the next opponent for the highly popular Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. According to Golden Boy Promotions vice president Eric Gomez, the following fighters are all being considered for Canelo’s next fight: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Liam Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, Daniel Jacobs, Shawn Porter, Miguel Cotto and Golovkin.
That’s not good for Triple G because some of those fighters are big names. Golovkin would have a hard time trying to compete with Cotto or Mayweather for a fight against Canelo if that’s the direction Golden Boy wants to go in for his next fight in September. Cotto and Mayweather are big pay-per-view fighters, and they’ve proven it over and over again during their careers.
Golovkin only has one fight on PPV during his own 12-year pro career, and that his match against former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux last October. The fight is said to have brought in a little over 100,000 PPV buys. You can’t compare those numbers with the type of monstrous PPV numbers that Cotto and Mayweather have brought in.
“Golovkin, (WBO middleweight titlist) BJ Saunders, Liam Smith, Shawn Porter, Cotto, Danny Jacobs and (Floyd) Mayweather (Jr.) all are being considered,” said Golden Boy’s Gomez to Michael Woods of Ringtv.com.
Here are the fighters that are under consideration for Canelo’s next fight:
Liam Smith Of all the fighters that Gomez listed as potential opponents for Canelo, Smith could be the leading candidate. Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) holds the WBO junior middleweight title, and he has a large fan base in the UK. Smith looked very good last Saturday night in dispatching challenger Predrag Radosevic (30-2, 11 KOs) in the 2nd round at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. This was Smith’s second straight knockout win since picking up the WBO junior middleweight title.
Shawn Porter – The only way Porter would have a chance to fight Canelo is if he beats WBA welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman in their fight on June 25 and looks good in that fight. There’s a lot of ifs involved in Porter getting a crack at Canelo, and it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to everything he needs to for him to get selected.
Daniel Jacobs – This is a long shot for Canelo because Jacobs has a lot of size, punching power and hand speed. Even if Jacobs agreed to drain down to 155 to take the fight against Canelo, it would still be a very dangerous fight for the Mexican fighter. Jacobs has the power, size and speed to give Canelo a great deal of problems. Jacobs would have to be seen as one of the last on the list for Canelo. It would be a big fight though if Golden Boy were to match Canelo against Jacobs. However, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll let that fight take place for the reasons listed above. Golden Boy obviously wants to keep Canelo winning his fights and remaining a marketable fighter on PPV. If they take the risk of putting him in with the 28-year-old Jacobs, he could wreck those plans by scoring a fast knockout over him like he did in his last fight against Peter Quillin. Jacobs is hitting his prime of his career right now, and that’s probably won’t get the fight.
Gennady Golovkin – This is a match that Golden Boy seems to be dragging their feet on. By reading some of the comments that Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya has been making about the Canelo-Golovkin fight, they appear to be more interested in letting the match-up marinate rather than putting the fight together. However, one thing that does seem clear is that when the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight does take place, it’s going to be under the conditions where Canelo has a decided handicap when it comes to the weight. If Golovkin never agrees to the handicap for Canelo, then the fight will likely marinate until the Kazakhstan fighter is older in his late 30s.
Floyd Mayeather Jr. – This is a fight that Golden Boy likely wants most of all for Canelo. However, Mayweather is busy spending down his huge fortune and he’s not likely to want to make a comeback to fight Canelo, especially now that he’s fighting at such a high level. Mayweather might not be interested in facing Canelo because he’s hitting the prime of his career, and he’s a better fighter now than he was in the past when Mayweather first fought him.
Miguel Cotto – This is a fight that Golden Boy will take in a second as well if it’s available to Canelo. Cotto doesn’t have the size to beat Canelo, and I think Golden Boy is comfortable making this match-up for many times as they can as long as the boxing public is interested in paying to see the two of them fight each other on HBO PPV.