By Dan Ambrose: Despite many boxing fans and members of the media having doubts whether Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will fight middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin next year in September 2017, Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya says the plan is still for him to take the fight with the Kazakhstan fighter next year.
In the meantime, De La Hoya wants Canelo to slowly build up to the middleweight weight limit of 160lbs by fighting against WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith at 154 pounds this month on September 17, and then fight in December in the middleweight division, and then one last fight in May of 2017 before facing Golovkin in September 2017.
”When his body is ready, GGG should look out,” said De La Hoya.
De La Hoya says that Canelo’s body should be ready by the time he fights Golovkin in September of next year. Right now, De La Hoya still insists that Canelo is a 154lb fighter. There is talk that Canelo is rehydrating to the mid-180s for his fights now, which would mean that he’s heavier than Golovkin already. Golovkin fights at round 170.
It seems to some boxing fans that De La Hoya isn’t waiting for Canelo to grow into the middleweight division, but rather for the 34-year-old Golovkin to age a little bit more to the point where he’s no longer dominating the division like he is now. If Canelo is rehydrating to 185 for his fights at 155, like some think, it would seem entirely unnecessary for him to grow into the middleweight division any more than he already has unless the plan is for him to get even heavier.
“Canelo will fight Golovkin at 160 pounds and we have a verbal agreement to do it in the fall of 2017. But in the meantime, Canelo is going to build up to being a true middleweight,” said De La Hoya. “The plan is…to start making his way up to 160 pounds and fight Golovkin on equal turf.”
A verbal agreement between Golden Boy and Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions means that if Canelo and Golden Boy aren’t interested in the fight net year with GGG, they could simply choose not to take it. There’s no certainty that the fight will take place next year or the year after.
It obviously is in Golden Boy and Canelo’s best interest right now for the boxing world to think the fight against Golokvin is right around the corner in September 2017. By De La Hoya mentioning the possibility – but not certainty – of the Canelo-Golovkin fight taking place next year, it could help increase the pay-per-view buys for Canelo’s fight against WBO 154lb champion Liam Smith on September 17, and in his fights in December of this year, and in May 2017.
Those are three fights where De La Hoya could in theory increase the interest and PPV buys if he keeps mentioning a possibility of a Canelo vs. Golovkin fight in September 2017. We saw how Manny Pacquiao was able to get a lot of PPV buys for his fights from 2009 to 2014 with boxing fans thinking a fight between him and Floyd Mayweather Jr. was right around the corner. As soon as the two fighters fought each other, Pacquiao and Mayweather’s PPV buys dropped off a steep cliff.
“We envision Canelo doing a third fight in 2016 either at or close to the middleweight limit and then a fight on Cinco De Mayo at 160 before facing Golovkin in the fall,” said De La Hoya.
Canelo won’t be too bold in his next two fights after facing Smith this month, as the options for his December fight is the winner of the Willie Monroe Jr. vs. Gabriel Rosado or WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders. If Canelo doesn’t fight Saunders in December, then he’ll surely be fighting him in May of next year. Those are all very easy fights for Canelo, and arguably a big step down from his match against Liam Smith. Even that fight is seen as an easy one for Canelo in the eyes of a lot of fans, because Smith isn’t viewed as the best fighter in the 154lb division. Smith is a good junior middleweight, but just not the best in the weight class.
“As of today, Canelo is a 154-lb fighter. He only fought for a Middleweight championship because fans wanted a fight with Miguel Cotto, and Canelo delivered by winning that fight convincingly,” said De La Hoya.
Canelo is clearly not a 154lb fighter. If he was, he would have been fighting at 154 for the last three years instead of fighting at 155. It’s got to be very hard for Canelo to get down to 154/155 for his fights, because he’s so huge. Canelo obviously saw an opportunity with his fights against an easy mark in Miguel Cotto, who was little more than a paper champion after beating 40-year-old Sergio Martinez, a fighter with a bum right knee. Canelo had the perfect opportunity to win an easy title off of Cotto, because he didn’t belong as a the WBC middleweight champion.