Canelo faces Liam Smith, focus still on Golovkin

By Boxing News - 09/16/2016 - Comments

Image: Canelo faces Liam Smith, focus still on Golovkin

By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will be fighting WBO junior middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith this Saturday night on September 17, but unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin seems to be the guy that is being mentioned more than anyone. Golovkin is the focus despite Canelo fight smith, because the boxing fans want to see the Canelo-Golovkin match.

The fans want to see Canelo fighting Golovkin, not the little known Liam Smith. This fight holds very little interest from fans. Golden Boy could have done a far better job if they had selected one of the arguably more talented junior middleweights for Canelo to fight if they were insisting on pooling from the 154lb division to find opponents for him.

If Canelo wins the fight this Saturday, then he’s expected back inside the ring on December 10 for a in the middleweight division, according to his promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. The Canelo-Smith match is a fight that must be won by Canelo for him to move forward to the middleweight fight in December and then presumably a fight at the full weight of 160lbs on Cinco de Mayo in May 2017.

De La Hoya says Canelo’s fight would be at either the full weight of 160lbs in the middleweight division or at a catch-weight. Canelo is SLOWLY being moved up to the full middleweight division at what appears to some boxing fans as a glacial pace. It’s been a two-year process for Canelo, as he’s been fighting catch-weights since 2014 in the middleweight division at 155. It’s kind of sad news that Canelo is now moving down in weight to challenge Liam Smith at 154 and then possibly moving back up to 155 for a continuation of his catch-weight fights.

We still don’t know what Canelo’s next weight will be at for his December fight, but it wouldn’t be all that surprising if it’s 155 again. According to the LA Times, the options for Canelo’s next fight is from these fighters: Billy Joe Saunders, Willie Monroe Jr., Curtis Stevens, or Gabriel Rosado. Those are guys that Canelo should be able to beat at the full weight of 160lbs for the middleweight division without the need for a catch-weight handicap. After all, Canelo says he’s confident that he can beat Gennady Golovkin. If Canelo can beat Golovkin, then he should be able to defeat his former knockout victims in Rosado, Monroe and Stevens. All three of those fighters were knocked out in the past by Golovkin.

“We envision Canelo doing a third fight in 2016 either at or close to the middleweight limit and then a fight (in May) on Cinco De Mayo at 160 before facing Golovkin in the fall,” De La Hoya said via espn.com. “I know Canelo-Golovkin is the biggest fight to make, the fighters know it’s the biggest fight to make and the fans know it’s the biggest fight to make. Everyone agreed that a fight for the middleweight championship should take place at the middleweight limit and once Canelo builds up to that weight, the fight will be on.”

De La Hoya and Canelo are really taking their time in moving up to middleweight. This is a move that should have taken place a long, long time ago. As big as Canelo is, he should be fighting at middleweight if not super middleweight. If Canelo rehydrating to 175 to the 180s like a lot of boxing fans think he is, then he shouldn’t have any issues about fighting at 160.

That weight would likely make it a lot easier on Canelo to make the weight. If you’ve had a chance to see how Canelo looked this week, he appears quite thin and drained. If he just moved up to middleweight to fight at 160, it would at least make it a little easier. I still think Canelo would be totally dehydrated looking in making 160, but at least it would give him an extra six pounds to play with so that he wouldn’t have to take off quite so much weight.

Canelo had a lot of boxing fans believing that he would be fighting Golovkin this year after he called him out following Canelo’s win over Amir Khan last May. Canelo invited Golovkin into the rings, and even said he would put the gloves back on so that they could fight right then and there. A lot of fans that saw and heard the bold talk from Caenlo assumed that he finally meant business and would be fighting Golovkin in 2016.

The aftermath saw Canelo vacate his WBC title rather than fighting Golovkin. We then heard the news that Golden Boy had a verbal agreement with Golovkin’s promoter for a fight between Canelo and Golovkin in September 2017. However, it’s hard for boxing fans to get excited about the fight because they don’t know if Canelo and Golden Boy are serious about wanting to make that fight.

“Like we say in Mexico, we don’t f— around,” Alvarez said last May after beating Amir Khan. “I don’t fear anyone. We don’t come to play in this sport. I don’t fear anyone in this sport.”

I believe it’s starting to bother Canelo that fans think he’s dodging the Golovkin fight. It’s not surprising though. What are fans supposed to think when they see Canelo vacate his WBC middleweight title after he’s ordered by the WBC to fight Golovkin? Then we hear all the stuff from De La Hoya about Canelo moving up to middleweight when his body tells him it’s ready. The fans take one look at the huge Canelo and they figure he’s more than big enough to fight Golovkin

”Look, people always say I’ve been running from that fight (with Golovkin),” Alvarez said via espn.com. “I wanted to make it clear to people that I don’t run from anyone. I always fight the best. But the fight against Golovkin didn’t happen because of negotiations. ‎They’re very difficult for such a big fight.”

Canelo, 26, can talk all he wants, but the fans aren’t going to buy what he’s saying until he gets inside the ring with Golovkin. The fans know that the 34-year-old Golovkin badly wants the fight with Canelo. They don’t seem to believe what canelo is saying about him not being afraid of fighting Golovkin. When the boxing fans heard the news of Canelo vacating his WBC title, it upset them.

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They figured that Canelo made that move so that he wouldn’t have to fight Golovkin, which you have to believe, was the case. Canelo could have been fighting Golovkin for this fight on Saturday, but instead he’s chosen to fight Liam Smith for his WBO title.

It’s a fight that will likely not bring in a lot of pay-per-view buys on HBO, because the fans aren’t demanding this match-up. Smith isn’t a big name in the United States, and he’s not seen as being on par with the other top 154lb fighters like Erislandy Lara, Demetrius Andrade, Jermell Charlo, Julian “J-Rock” Williams and Jermall Charlo.

De La Hoya reasons that it was a smart business move for Canelo to vacate his WBC title rather than fighting Golovkin, because it would have meant giving him a 55-45 split of the revenue with Canelo getting the bigger cut of the pie. But y vacating the WBC title, Canelo and Golden Boy can look to get a bigger cut of the revenue than the previous 55-45.

It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of split that Golden Boy and Canelo will be looking to get for the Golovkin fight. If they ask for too high of a slipt in their favor, then it’s unlikely that Golovkin will agree to it. If this is going to be Golovkin’s biggest money making fight in his career, it won’t do him any good if he lets Canelo take most of the money. Without Golovkin, Canelo’s fight wouldn’t bring in a lot of PPV buys. But with Golovkin’s help, he possibly bring in over 1 million buys and sellout 80,000 seat AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Smith will be playing the part of the spoiler this Saturday night in looking to defeat Canelo, and wreck his fight against Golovkin. If Smith can beat Canelo, then he’ll be the one who has a chance of fighting Golovkin, not Canelo. Smith would still need to fight Canelo a second time, because there’s no way that Golden Boy would let Smith escape without having Canelo face him a second time to try and avenge the loss.

“[Alvarez] is the star fighter in boxing, and people want him to fight the very best, and he has always fought the very best,” said De La Hoya to espn.com. “And fighting a Golovkin is going to be no exception.”

Canelo has not always fought the best. That’s the whole problem. He’s fighting perhaps the fifth or sixth best junior middleweight in Liam Smith. Canelo’s fights against Miguel Cotto, James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo weren’t against the best. Cotto is a good fighter, but he’s not the best at 154 or 160. Anguloa d Kirkland aren’t the best, and Canelo fought them in 2015 and 2014 respectively.

Also on this Saturday’s Canelo-Smith card are the following fights:

Gabriel Rosado vs. Willie Monroe Jr.
Joseph Diaz Jr. vs. Andrew Cancio
Diego De La Hoya vs. Luis Orlando Del Valle