Golovkin’s trainer: Canelo would have a responsibility to defend WBC title if he wins it

By Boxing News - 11/10/2015 - Comments

sanchezBy Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez says Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) will have a responsibility to defend the WBC middleweight title against Golovkin, the WBC #1 mandatory challenger, if Canelo defeats the current WBC 160lb champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) in their catch-weight fight at 155lbs this month on November 21st.

There’s been talk that the winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight will ignore the World Boxing Council’s mandate that they fight Golovkin next, and instead will vacate the title so that they can continue to fight whoever they want to fight, which could very well be each other in a series of rematches until the boxing public tires of paying to see them fight each other on HBO PPV.

“If it’s Cotto [who wins on November 21st], he’s already had a Hall of Fame career, and it’s probably not going to hurt him [if he vacates the WBC title after a win over Canelo],”M Sanchez said. ”If it’s Canelo, he’s a budding superstar. He has a responsibility if he’s fighting for a middleweight title to his fans to defend that middleweight title. If he doesn’t, then he’s perceived as scared, feeling that he’s not ready for Golovkin. If he gives it up and drops down to 154, then he understands and there’s nothing that can be said, because he understands that he’s a 154 pounder. But they are fighting for the middleweight title. For us, it really doesn’t matter because Golovkin’s objective is to be the undisputed middleweight champion. As he’s said in the past, he wants to find out who’s who in the middleweight division. He’s No.1, and if you drop the belt, then he goes onto somebody else. It’s not Canelo or Cotto; it’s the belt that matters,” Sanchez said.

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Right now, Golovkin is waiting for the smoke to clear from the Cotto-Canelo fight on 11/21 so that he can find out if the winner of the fight will chose to defend the title against him or if they’ll vacate the belt. If they choose to defend the WBC title against him, then Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler expects to challenge the winner of the Cotto vs. Canelo fight by as late as May of 2016. If they vacate the title, then Loefler sees Golovkin fighting in March of next year.

“Right now, we’re waiting for the winner of that fight [Cotto-Canelo], Loeffler said. “The next step is the WBC title, which is why we’re waiting for the winner if Canelo-Cotto. It depends on what the winner decides. If it’s a fight against us against the winners, then it will probably be in May. If not, and they choose not to fight him [Golovkin] for some reason and don’t have the title anymore, then it’ll probably be in March,” Loeffler said.

The WBC will either take the WBC 160lb title and either give it to Golovkin straightaway if the Cotto-Canelo winner decides not to fight him, or have him fight the next highest ranked contender in the WBC’s top 15 rankings. At this time, it would be #2 WBC Jorge Sebastian Heiland.

I think what we’re going to see between Cotto and Canelo is the winner of that fight vacating the WBC title. They will then face each other at least one more time, possibly even two or three more times depending on how competitive the fight is and how much money the fight brings in for the PPV numbers. I think both of those fighters are more focused on making money right now than in terms of them looking to accomplish something in the sport. Golovkin seems to have different ideas. He’s not just looking to make as much money as possible. I do think he wants to make a lot of money though, because if he didn’t, then he wouldn’t be interested in fighting guys like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Carl Froch rather than Andre Ward.



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