By Sean Jones: After many weeks of negotiations, the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin rematch is close to getting done, according to ESPN Deportes. A source from Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions is saying the Canelo-GGG rematch could be announced this week or next week. They’re working on completing the smaller details in the negotiations.
Canelo and Triple G will be fighting on Cinco de Mayo weekend on May 5. There’s no word about what state the rematch will be staged in, but it’s expected that it’ll be back in Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s where the fight makes more money. It might not be a good deal for Golovkin when it comes to scoring of the fight, but it looks like his promoter Tom Loeffler will opt for the money rather than on having the fight staged in the place where there’s a better chance of GGG being able to win a decision.
Having the fight in Vegas is obviously good for Canelo, because he’s fought there so many times and he’s been involved in 2 controversial decisions there in his fights with Golovkin and Erislandy Lara. You can say that Las Vegas has been a good luck charm for Canelo when it comes to him avoiding decision defeats. If the fight does take place there, Golovkin might need to think about knocking Canelo out to avoid another controversial result.
World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman believes the Canelo vs. Gennady rematch will get made because it affords the two fighters their best shot at getting a huge payday. There’s no one else for them to fight that will give them similar money outside of Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he’s not going to fight either of them. Mayweather doesn’t want to fight anyone from the boxing world at this point in his life.
“I understand that they are negotiating,” said Sulaiman to ESPN Deportes in discussing the Canelo vs. Golovkin negotiations. ”It is the only fight that both can give them what they expect in the economic. There is no other rival for either one or the other. It is also the fight that the world wants to see,” said Sulaiman.
Sulaiman reportedly talked to Loeffler about the negotiations, and he was given a positive message.
With January almost half over, it’s imperative that the negotiations for the Canelo vs. GGG fight be completed so that the fight can sold to the boxing public. For the second Canelo-Golovkin fight to bring in more pay-per-view buys than the first, it’s going to require that the fight be announced soon. There’s now less than 4 months to go before May 5. Golden Boy must wrap up the negotiations for the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight as soon as possible.
Sulaiman is correct about both fighters not having anyone else to fight to make the kind of money for Canelo and Golovkin. They can make decent money fighting WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, but nothing close to the kind of money they can make fighting each other. The U.S boxing public isn’t going to purchase a fight involving Saunders on PPV. If Canelo fights Saunders on HBO PPV in the future, that’s a fight that is dead on arrival as far as PPV in the United States.
Golovkin is probably going to need to make some minor changes to his fighting style for him to get the win over Canelo in the rematch. The first thing that Golovkin needs to do is make sure he stays directly on top of Canelo by staying close. Golovkin let Canelo have too much space in the first fight, which is why he was able to move away from him along the wrongs.
Had Golovkin stayed directly on top of him, Canelo would have been trapped and forced to fight. That means Golovkin will need to be willing to take Canelo’s hard counter shots from in close. But if Golovkin had done his research, he would have realized that Canelo gets tired very quickly, even when his opponents are right in front of him at point blank range. If Golovkin was willing to take some heavy shots from Canelo by being in the pocket, he could have worn him down and stopped him within 6 rounds or less. If you look back at Canelo’s fight with Liam Smith, he was fighting on fumes after 4 rounds.
The only reason Canelo was able to take over the fight is Smith couldn’t keep up the fast pace that he had set out for himself in the fight. Smith came into the fight with Canelo with a great game plan of trying to wear him down with nonstop punches. Smith said he wanted to force Canelo to fight hard for a full 3 minutes of each round because he had seen for himself that he can’t do it without gassing out. Unfortunately for Smith, he wore out faster than Canelo did, and this allowed the Golden Boy star to take charge of the fight after round 4.
Golovkin must be a little more courageous in the second fight with Canelo if he wants to avoid winding up getting potentially robbed again. If the fight takes place in Las Vegas, Golovkin will be the visiting fighter again. Canelo is from Mexico, but he’s fought in Las Vegas tons of times, and it’s like his second home. Canelo brings money to the city each time he fights there. That gives him a big advantage whether you admit it or not. Golovkin need to concentrate on making Canelo work nonstop for 3 minutes of each round, and he cannot let the 3 judges score the fight.