By Sean Jones: Tom Loeffler says everyone has agreed to the rematch on Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Golden Boy Promotion’s side, and they’re just waiting for Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to say yes to the fight.
Canelo was in the UK over the weekend to give moral support for fellow countryman Horacio Garcia in his fight with Carl Frampton in Belfast, Northern Ireland. When Canelo returns to the U.S, he’s expected to let Golden Boy know whether he wants to fight Golovkin in a rematch in early next year on May 5. Loeffler, who promotes Triple G, wants to know what Canelo’s intentions are as soon as possible so that he can focus on looking for a backup plan.
It’s especially important that Golovkin and Loeffler find out soon about the Canelo rematch, because they want to fight in February or March if they can’t get Golden Boy star for the return match. It’s going to take time for Loeffler to find an alternative opponent. Considering how little time there is before February and March, Loeffler won’t have much time to find someone for GGG and get him signed. Danny Jacobs is willing to fight Golovkin in April. It’s unclear whether that month fits the schedule for what Loeffler and GGG wants.
“I’ve been in contact with Eric Gomez, Golden Boy says they want the fight, HBO says he wants the fight, Tecate sponsors Canelo and Gennady says they want the fight,” said Loeffler to ESPN Deportes. ”Everyone wants the fight. We’re just waiting for Canelo to say, ‘yes.’ On our side, GGG, said yes to the fight. GGG believes that he won the fight, continues as champion and wants to try in the rematch that is more clearly the true champion,” said Loeffler.
Due to the questionable scoring for the first Canelo-GGG fight last September in Las Vegas, Nevada, Loeffler says he prefers that the rematch take in another state. Loeffler is interested in having the second fight take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas or at Madison Square Garden in New York. Before Loeffler can do the real challenging work in pushing to have the rematch outside of Nevada, he needs Canelo to say yes to fight Golovkin on May 5.
There’s no point in Loeffler wasting time trying to work out a deal for a fight in New York or Texas if Canelo isn’t going to give the green light to the fight. It might not matter where the second Canelo vs. GGG fight takes place. If Canelo can land cleaner landing shots, he’s going to stand a good chance of winning a lot of the rounds. If Golovkin wants to box Canelo like he did last time, then he simply is going to need to fight a lot harder the second time around.
Canelo has other options available to him for his next fight. He can fight the winner of the Billy Joe Saunders vs. David Lemieux fight. Canelo can also fight some welterweights if they’re willing to come up to 160 to fight him the way that Amir Khan did last year. However, after the way that Canelo knocked out Khan, it’s unlikely that he’s going to get too many fighters from the 147-lb. division interested in fighting him in the future. Ideally, Canelo should fight Golovkin again, but if he wants to let that fight marinate, then you can understand why he would want to wait a little longer before taking the fight.
“It’s hard to say (how likely the fight is) until Canelo signs, but if it were for us the fight was made, we’ll look for other options in case Canelo decides not to fight,” said Loeffler. ”They’ll [Golden Boy Promotions] talk to Canelo when he returns from England, and all the fans are waiting for this fight,” said Loeffler.
It’ll be good for Loeffler and GGG to know what Canelo intends on doing. Golden Boy should have let Loeffler and Golovkin know a long time ago whether they were going to do the rematch or not. Loeffler could have already had another opponent lined up by now. With Golden Boy promoting Lemieux, GGG’s options are less appealing if he can’t get the Canelo or fight the Saunders-Lemieux winner. Golovkin would be looking at possible fights against the likes of Danny Jacobs or Jermall Charlo. Those aren’t easy fights.
Golovkin will need to raise his game if he wants to beat Jacobs a second time, because he’s going to be confident going into the rematch due to the problems he gave him last March. Golovkin barely beat Jacobs by a 12 round unanimous decision. Golovkin fought Jacobs the same way he did Canelo in staying on the outside and jabbing most of the night. When Jacobs turned up the heat on Golovkin in the later rounds of the fight, the Kazakhstan fighter didn’t have enough left in the tank to win the championship rounds. All 3 of the judges had Jacobs winning 5 of the last 6 rounds. Jacobs will try and start pressuring Golovkin earlier in the rematch, knowing that if he can outwork him, he’ll stand a better chance of winning a decision.