By Dan Ambrose: Despite Golden Boy Promotions head honcho Oscar De La Hoya saying that a fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO middleweight champion Gennady “GGG: Golovkin will take place in the fall of 2017, Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez doesn’t see that happening at all. Sanchez believes that Golden Boy is going to wait until Golovkin is 60-years-old before they make that fight.
Obviously, Sanchez is just joking, but what he seems to be saying is that Golden Boy will wait for Golovkin to age enough to where they feel that they have the advantage I putting their franchise fighter Canelo in with him so that it’s him in a strong position to win, not Golovkin.
Since they’ve got Canelo’s youth and popularity on their side, they can wait as long as it takes before making that fight. Canelo doesn’t need to fight Golovkin in order to make a lot of money. His fights are still purchased by boxing fans on HBO, even with him not always facing quality opposition.
Canelo’s next fight is against World Boxing Organization junior middleweight champion Liam Smith on September 17 on HBO pay-per-view at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Normally a fight like that wouldn’t be on pay-per-view, because U.S casual boxing fans have likely have never heard of Smith, but with Canelo’s popularity, there will be enough fans willing to purchase the fight to make him and Golden Boy a nice tidy payday. Canelo doesn’t need to fight the best fighters to get nice paydays. He can fight the lesser champions and/or fighters and make good payday due to his built in fan base in the U.S.
“First of all, Canelo was never going to fight us,” said Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez. “It may happen when Gennady is 60, but for now, I don’t think he would,” said Sanchez.
In speaking about Chris Eubank Jr. choosing not to fight Golovkin for September, Sanchez said, “I was surprised. I had seen a lot of ways to turn down a fight. His father [Chris Eubank Sr.] found a new one. Eddie [Hearn] tried everything, according to Tom [Loeffler]. His father was putting up so many demands that he wasn’t able to fulfill. I think the business of boxing is why the [Golovkin vs. Canelo] fight is not happening. He’s ready. It’s just the business of boxing is what they’re basing their decision on,” said Sanchez.
Sanchez is probably right about Canelo not fighting Golovkin until he’s older. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the next five years. I think it’ll be a year by year thing where Golden Boy and Canelo look to see if Golovkin is showing signs of age. If he’s still fighting like he is now, then I see the fight being pushed to the next year each time. It’s going to be a big joke if they keep pushing it year by year, so they’re going to need to come up with a reason in 2017 why the fight can’t happen and then stick with that reason until they decide to finally make the fight.
Golovkin isn’t in the situation where he can give Canelo a take it or leave it offer. With the money that Golovkin can make fighting Canelo, he’s obviously going to jump on the chance to fight him even if it’s offered six or even years from now when he’s in his 40s. If Golovkin permanently turns down a fight against Canelo, he’d be throwing away millions of dollars in the process. The only way that it wouldn’t matter is if Golovkin loses that money if he were to soon turn into a pay-per-view attraction in the United States. Golovkin doesn’t look like he’s going to be turning into a huge PPV attraction in the States anytime soon, but you never know.
Canelo looks to be heading towards a fight against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in December. If Canelo wins that fight, then he’ll likely defend the belt against the limited contenders in the WBO’s rankings rather than face dangerous guys like Daniel Jacobs.
The WBO isn’t likely going to let Canelo pull fighters up from the welterweight division to defend his WBO middleweight title against. It would make a mockery of their WBO strap. The World Boxing Council let Canelo defend his middleweight title against welterweight Amir Khan last May. But if Canelo is going to do that over and over again as the WBO middleweight title, it’s going to be a big joke, especially if he’s rehydrating up to 185 or higher like some boxing fans think. Golovkin’s trainer Sanchez thinks Canelo weighed 185 for the Khan fight after he rehydrated from 155.