WBC to give special belt to Canelo-GGG winner

By Boxing News - 09/05/2017 - Comments

Image: WBC to give special belt to Canelo-GGG winner

By Jim Dower: The WBC showed off their new Huichol belt on Tuesday in Mexico City to display it to the media and boxing fans for the winner of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin fight on September 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Huichol belt is the 2nd edition of the Adolfo López Mateos Belt.

Canelo Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) has already rejected fighting for the WBC title in Golovkin’s possession. Assuming Canelo beats Golovkin, it’s unknown if he’ll accept the Huichol belt or not. If Canelo decided to keep the belt, he wouldn’t have the responsibility of defending it against the WBC mandatory contender Jermall Charlo. Huichol belt is just a nice belt that the WBC will be putting up for the fight.

“The belt is one hundred percent Mexican and it is to honor the two dates that are celebrated annually in Mexican boxing on May 5 and September 16,” said World Boxing Council president Jose Sulaimán via Fight News. “The Huichol Belt is a beautiful piece, it has the Mexican flag and the flag of Kazakhstan, both fighters are at their best and is the one that fans have been waiting for, whoever wins will be ratified as the best in the world.”

The Adolfo López Mateos Belt [aka Huichol belt] is an extraordinarily beautiful belt for the WBC to give out. It should be a great honor for the winner to receive the handcrafted belt. It would be hoped that Canelo, 27, will accept the belt if he beat Golovkin. There’s no word at how much the Adolfo López Mateos Belt is worth. The WBC has created some belts that contain priceless gold and different types of gems.

Canelo vs. Golovkin will be taking place in less than 2 weeks on September 16 on HBO pay-per-view. The fight has had to take a backseat for the last month to the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight that took place on August 26. The interest from boxing public in the Mayweather-McGregor event has finally started to die down now that it’s been talked about extensively. Now it’s Canelo and Golovkin’s time to shine in the sun.

Golovkin to throw out first ball for Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Colorado Rockies game this Sunday

Golovkin will have the honor of throwing out the first pitch at the pitcher’s mound this Sunday on September 10 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. The game starts at 1:10 p.m. PT. Golovkin, 35, lives in the Los Angeles area, and he trains at Big Bear California for all of his fights.

“Gennady will be throwing the heater on Sunday, just like he will on September 16 against Canelo,” said GGG’s trainer Abel Sanchez.

it would be great if many of the baseball fans that watch the Dodgers-Rockies fight live at Dodger Stadium and on television purchase the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight on HBO PPV. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya is hoping the fight does good numbers on HBO PPV, but it’s unclear if it will. A lot of boxing fans purchased the Mayweather-McGregor fight on August 26 on Showtime PPV, and those fans might not have additional money to purchase another pay-per-view fight just 3 weeks apart from the event fight. Mayweather vs. McGregor fight sold for $89 and $99 on PPV. That’s not cheap. That’s a lot of money for the fans to have had to pay out to see the fight.

The unbeaten Triple G (37-0, 33 KOs) will be defending his unbeaten record as well as his IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight titles against Canelo. For his part, Canelo will be defending his prestigious Ring Magazine middleweight title, which he was permitted to keep despite having vacated his WBC middleweight title last year and moved down to 154 to win the WBO 154lb title. Canelo’s fight with Golovkin will be his first fight at the full weight for the 160 lb. division. A lot of boxing fans want to see how Canelo will react to fighting at the full weight for the division against a true middleweight.

Canelo’s 2 fights at middleweight in the past came against Miguel Cotto and Amir Khan. Cotto has spent much of his career at 154 and below. He only moved up in weight in 2014 to win the WBC middleweight title against a fading 40-year-old Sergio Martinez. Cotto held onto the WBC 160lb title long enough to defend it against Daniel Geale before losing it to Canelo in November 2015. Golovkin has been a middleweight champion for 7 years since 2010. If he loses to Canelo on September 16, it will end his unbeaten record and his 7-year period as a champion at 160.