By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya said today that his fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is still a 154lb fighter, and that he’s not going to fight unbeaten Gennady “GGG” Golovkin until his body tells him it’s ready to go up to 160lbs to take that fight. This is the same thing De La Hoya has been saying for months now.
The way that De La Hoya was speaking, it doesn’t seem like Canelo will be fighting Golovkin in 2017. There was previously talk that Golden Boy wanted to wait until the fall of 2017 before they matched Canelo against Golovkin, but now it appears that it’s going to depend on when Canelo’s body is ready for him to fight at 160. Just how long that’ll take is unclear.
If Canelo drags it out for a two or three years by fighting at catch-weights from 155 to 158, it’s going to make him a laughing stock in the minds of a lot of boxing fans.
“Canelo knows his body,” De La Hoya said on Wednesday during a conference call to drum up interest in Canelo’s fight next month against WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith on September 17 on HBO pay-per-view. “The bottom line is, Canelo is a 154-pound fighter. The fact that he fought at 155, people expect him to go and fight at middleweight. He’s going up to 160 pounds when his body feels ready. People always want to see the very best. He is the star fighter in boxing and people want him to fight the very best and fighting a Golovkin — he’s going to fight him but when he’s ready to go up to 160.”
Canelo, 26, has been fighting at middleweight for the last two years, albeit at a catch-weight of 155lbs. What makes it so confusing is the fact that Canelo’s rehydrated weight is believed to be from 175 to the mid-180s. If that weight is accurate, then it makes little sense for Canelo to be fighting at 154 or at catch-weights.
If he has to dehydrate 20-30 pounds to make weight at 154 or 155, that’s a lot of weight. If Canelo isn’t comfortable fighting at the full weight of 160lbs when he’s rehydrating to the 180s, then just when will he feel comfortable? You would hope that De La Hoya isn’t going to wait until Canelo is weighing in the 190s before he feels comfortable fighting at the full weight of 160, because that’s a lot of water weight to lose the week of a fight.
Canelo is supposedly moving up to the full weight of 160lbs for his next fight in December, but we’ll have to see if that takes place. Perhaps he won’t be fighting at the full weight. The thing is once Canelo does fight at the full weight for the middleweight division at 160, he’s going to be facing tremendous pressure to fight Golovkin from the boxing world.
If Canelo drags it out by choosing to fight at catch-weights at 155 to 158, he could slow up the process and deflect some criticism by saying that he’s still not a full middleweight. It’s just not normal what Canelo is doing by taking his time like this. If you compare Canelo to some of the Mexican greats of the past like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, we didn’t see this kind of thing from him when he moved up in weight.
Canelo was supposed to fight Golovkin this year when he was the WBC middleweight title holder. Canelo defended his WBC title against Amir Khan last May, and then talked boldly in the ring after the fight. It gave a lot of boxing fans the impression that Canelo would fight Golovkin next. Canelo then surprised everyone by vacating his WBC title.
The excuse for vacating it by Golden Boy was that they weren’t going to be pressured by the World Boxing Council with their artificial deadlines. They wanted more time to negotiate the fight. However, once Canelo gave up his WBC title, there were no negotiations with Golovkin. Not long after that, a fight was signed between Canelo and WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith for September 17 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Smith is a good fighter, but he’s NOT seen as the best of the junior middleweight champions at this time.
The fans are hoping that Canelo will fight Golovkin in 2017, but after today’s comments from De La Hoya, it remains to be seen if that fight is going to happen.
Golovkin is frustrated at the waiting that he’s having to do for the Canelo fight, and he now thinks that he’s going to be made to wait another three to five years before he’s eventually given the fight.
As for Golovkin, he has a fight scheduled next month against Kell Brook on September 10. After that match, Golovkin could face the likes of Chris Eubank Jr. or possibly Daniel Jacobs in December. If neither of those fights take place, then someone like Gilberto Ramirez is a possibility.