Golovkin should call Canelo’s bluff and agree to fight him at 155

By Boxing News - 10/30/2015 - Comments

Boxing: Golovkin vs LemieuxBy Dan Ambrose: For boxing fans interested in knowing when IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) and his promoter Tom Loeffler will be making a decision about when to fight again, they’ll need to sit tight for a while and wait until the smoke clears from next months’ fight between WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Saul Canelo Alvarez.

Golovkin wants the fight next, but he could be hit with a huge obstacle and getting the fight with the 25-year-old Mexican fighter. Canelo says only fight Golovkin at a catch-weight of 155lbs. It’s unknown how serious Canelo was when he said he’d fighting Golovkin at that weight.

It’s quite possible that Canelo only said that because he thinks that Golovkin won’t agree to it. Golovkin could throw Canelo off if he suddenly agrees to fight him at the 155lb catch-weight. Golovkin would at least find out quickly how serious Canelo is in wanting to fight him. If Golovkin agrees to the catch-weight, then it would put the pressure on Canelo to either agree to the fight or come up with an excuse for why he can’t fight him.

I think Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions has already planted an idea into the head of Canelo by telling him that they should wait longer before agreeing to the Golovkin fight in order to make it a bigger one.

De La Hoya no doubt saw how the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight became a huge fight simply by the two fighters waiting a long time before finally agreeing to fight each other. But there’s a difference though in the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight and the Canelo-Golovkin fight. Neither of these guys is as popular as Mayweather and Pacquiao.

“If he [Golovkin] wants to fight with me, let him come down to 155 and I’ll fight him whatever day he wants,” Canelo said to Fighthype.com.

YouTube video

Golovkin is already 33, and he can’t afford to wait five years before De La Hoya finally agrees to let his golden goose Canelo fight Golovkin. In five year, Canelo will be 30, and Golovkin 38. I don’t see Golovkin being at the top of the sport by that time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d already been beaten by someone.

Golovkin’s next fight won’t be determined until 10 days after the Cotto-Canelo fight. That’s how long the World Boxing Council is giving them to make a decision about whether they’ll agree to fight Golovkin or not. If they don’t opt to face Golovkin, then the WBC will move forward to strip the winner of the fight from the WBC title.

The title belt will then be given to Golovkin. The Cotto-Canelo winner could also vacate the belt as well. Either way, Golovkin will be given the title. Judging by some of the things that Cotto and Canelo have said in the last year, it would seem likely that they’ll go ahead and vacate the title rather than agreeing to the fight.

Once Golovkin has the WBC title in his possession, then he’ll likely make his next defense against his #1 IBF mandatory challenger Tureano Johnson in early 2016, possibly in February. Johnson is a very good fighter, and might be good enough to defeat Cotto and Canelo if given the chance. I would suspect that Johnson could give Golovkin his toughest fight since his war with Kassim Ouma five years ago.

YouTube video

Loeffler thinks that Canelo is more likely to agree to a fight against Golovkin than Cotto, but now it seems like he’s not on board with a fight against Golovkin either.



Comments are closed.