By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions reportedly has a rematch clause in the contract for September 16 Saul “Canelo” Alvarez versus Gennady “GGG” Golovkin fight. If Golovkin beats Canelo, then he must fight him again if Canelo decides to request the rematch. But if Canelo wins, then he doesn’t have to give Golovkin a rematch. Canelo can move on and fight whoever he wants. That doesn’t exactly sound fair to GGG, because he’s the world champion with 3 world titles in his possession and Canelo just a popular challenger.
Normally, it’s the world champion that is the one with the rematch clause favoring them. In this case, the roles are reversed, and Golovkin seemingly in the position of the challenger despite him holding the world titles.
”If GGG Boxing wins [on] Sept. 16, there is a rematch clause for Canelo to invoke. If Canelo wins, he can choose whoever he wants next,” said Lance Pugmire on his social media site. “[I] was also told by Tom Loeffler that if Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. had knocked out Canelo, GGG Boxing would’ve fought Chavez next at 168 pounds.”
The worst thing that could have happened to Golovkin would have been for Chavez Jr. to defeat Canelo last Saturday night, because it would have meant an immediate rematch between the two Mexican fighters Canelo and Chavez Jr. in September. Golovkin would have had to wait another year or possibly longer to get a shot against Canelo.
At the very least, Golovkin would have to wait until May 2018, which is 1 year away from now. There would be a possibility that Golovkin might not have gotten a fight against Canelo for year and a half until September 2018. It’s good news that Chavez Jr. lost to Canelo. It’s obviously not good for Canelo to win a fight that was as ugly as the Chavez Jr. fight, because it almost looked like Chavez Jr. purposefully didn’t fight back.
If you’ve seen Chavez Jr. fight in the past, what you saw last Saturday was another fighter. It looked like Chavez Jr. didn’t even try to fight back. It was not the way that Canelo needed to be seen winning before such a big fight against Golovkin. The sad thing is the Canelo-Chavez Jr. was a mega-fight, which might bring in 1 million buys on HBO PPV. That’s a lot of potentially angry people at Golden Boy and Canelo for them being involved in such a truly bad fight. It would have been smart on Golden Boy’s part to drag Golovkin into the ring by the 6th round to let the angry boxing fans know that Canelo would be fighting him next. At least that way, the fans would have booed as much, and the fans at home wouldn’t have been stomping mad at the lack of action in the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight.
The real question you have to ask is where does Canelo go if he does beat Golovkin? There are not a lot of big names in the middleweight division after you get past Golovkin. Does Canelo then face the likes of Billy Joe Saunders, David Lemieux, Jermall Charlo or Daniel Jacobs? There 3 good middleweights that could give Canelo fits inside the ring. I don’t count Saunders as being a threat to Canelo due to his lack of power and poor conditioning. Saunders is a 6-round fighter in my opinion. He gassed after 6 rounds, and Canelo would take advantage of that. But if Canelo somehow gets past Golovkin without it being another controversial decision like we saw in his wins over Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara, then the boxing public is going to expect Canelo to fight Charlo, Jacobs or Lemieux in his next fight.
They’re not going to want to see Golden Boy revert to the way they matched Canelo in the past in putting him in with weak opponents one after another in order to make sure their cash cow doesn’t get beaten. Golden Boy doesn’t have a lot of top fighters in their stable, and it would be bad for them if Canelo loses.
“We all want to see big fights and great fights,” said Max Kellerman on ESPN’s First take. “We can’t wish those fights into existence. Those two guys have to earn their way there. When the dust settles, the two in the winning circle fight each other. That’s a super fight and that’s what Canelo and Triple G will be at middleweight. It’s huge the way Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko, when the best fight the best. In the UFC, Dana White always finds a way to match the best against the best. You have the best in the Super Bowl. You have the same thing in baseball and basketball and football. That’s not always the case in boxing. So here it’s huge with the best fighting the best. They’re not waiting for pent up demand like Mayweather and Pacquiao did. Here, unlike Mayweather and Pacquiao, you have the best guys fighting the best and it promises to be a great action fight. We finally have the eyes of the world focused on boxing for a huge event, but maybe because people waited too long for that to happen, Mayweather- Pacquiao or because of the styles of the fighters, Mayweather-Pacquiao, are such that it’s not going to make for a great action fight, people leave disappointed. Klitschko-Joshua, a week ago at Wembley Stadium, it gave the boxing fans their money’s worth. That will encourage the casual fans to come back. Triple G and Canelo is the same kind of fight. All Triple G wants to do is come to you so that he can destroy you. All Canelo wants to do is have you come to him so that he can beat you down with his counter punching and combinations. These strategies play into each other. This is a great fight, a really great fight for boxing,” said Kellerman.
“This is why this fight is so important for boxing,” said Stephen A. Smith to ESPN’s First Take. “Number 1, the timing of it all; we didn’t have to wait for it. Number 2, we know these dudes are going to fight. Triple G, unlike Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., is going to throw punches. He’s going to use his jab. He’s going to try and hurt Canelo instead of backing up from the 1st round and barely throwing any punches at all. That’s No.2. Number 3, As long as you have a great fight, no one loses. I think Triple G is going to beat Canelo. I’m saying that right now. I think Triple G is going to beat him and beat him late, because he’s going to use that jab to his advantage. I still want to see it because Canelo can fight, and he’s got great courage. I love Canelo,” said Smith.
“If a fighter really wants a fight, eventually he’s going to get his way,” said Kellerman. “Canelo is the type of guy that isn’t the type is trying to hear all the talk about how he’s ducking Triple G. He was seething about that. But Golden Boy, that’s their cash cow, eventually they were going to make that fight, because De La Hoya fought everyone and Hopkins fought everyone. That’s Golden Boy. So that’s in the DNA of their promotional outfit, but also in Canelo’s DNA is to not avoid challenges. So eventually this fight got made, but not a moment too soon for the sport,” said Kellerman.