By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya is saying that Gennady Golovkin could cause the Saul Canelo Alvarez fight to be put in jeopardy if he fights Billy Joe Saunders on June 10. The thought behind what De La Hoya is saying is that Golovkin could suffer an injury in the fight with Saunders, and that cut cause the September fight with Canelo to be canceled. De La Hoya is also concerned with limited about of time to promote the Canelo-Golovkin fight if Golovkin faces Saunders on June 10.
It appears that Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler are heeding De La Hoya’s warnings, because they haven’t signed the contract with the Saunders fight yet. Saunders’ promoter Frank Warren doesn’t want his fighter to be just sitting and waiting for Golovkin for no reason. He’s given GGG a time limit of 10 days. If he hasn’t signed by then, Saunders and Warren will move on. This is a chance of a lifetime for Golovkin. If he passes it up, he may never get an opportunity again to fight for the final world title not in his possession. The chances are slim that Golovkin will win all the titles at super middleweight. That’s his next destination after this year is up.
Golovkin needs to decide what he wants most of all. Does he want the big payday that comes from fighting Canelo or does he want something for his boxing legacy by him fighting for the WBO middleweight title against Billy Joe Saunders? Golovkin needs to call De La Hoya’s bluff by taking the fight with Saunders in June. De La Hoya will make the fight with Golovkin as soon as possible if he really wants it for Canelo.
If De La Hoya doesn’t want the Golovkin fight, then it probably doesn’t matter what he does. Golovkin can sit and wait for the Canelo fight faithfully for September and left high and dry just like before. Canelo already showed his hand in 2016 by not fighting Golovkin. Why would Golovkin and Loeffller trust him now? Coming events cast their shadows before. Trust is earned.
Golovkin was burned last year, and now he’s going to trust Canelo and De La Hoya? t seems to me that Golovkin should take the fight with Saunders on June 10. If De La Hoya truly wants the fight with Golovkin, he’ll make it in September. If De La Hoya was never serious about wanting that fight, then it won’t happen. Golovkin will be put on hold again. I think Golovkin needs to know when to walk away, and I think this is a good time.
“All he has to do is sign the contract,” said Saunders’s promoter Frank Warren to espn.com. ”Wherever and whenever they want. But we’re not going to keep waiting. If something is not done in the next ten days, we’re going to have to move on. Financially the terms have been agreed and it’s just whether they want to do it or not.”
Beating Canelo won’t be a big deal. We saw Floyd Mayweather Jr. easily beat Canelo using just his jab alone in their fight in 2013. Canelo can’t get out of the way of a jab. It’s pretty obvious that Golovkin would take Canelo to school with the jab that he was hitting Daniel Jacobs with in their recent fight on March 18. Jacobs had no answer for Golovkin’s jab, which is why he was hit with all night long. The jab was why Jacobs lost. He couldn’t solve it, and the judges saw that. Canelo will lose to Golovkin just off of him jabbing him unless we get the same kind of scoring that we had in the Canelo vs. Erislandy Lara fight.