By Dan Ambrose: WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman’s extension for WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) expires this Monday for him to come to a deal with #1 WBC mandatory challenger Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) for a fight between them. The WBC gave Canelo an extension last Saturday, but it remains to be seen whether the fight will be negotiated by Monday.
It’s starting to look like Canelo made the mistake of fighting WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto for his title, because with the title came the huge responsibility of having to defend the belt against Golovkin in the first defense.
Canelo and his trainer Eddie Reynoso have been talking about Golovkin having to fight at a catch-weight, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll agree to that. As the WBC mandatory challenger, Golovkin doesn’t need to fight at a catch-weight. As long as he fights at the required weight for the division, Golovkin can’t be pressured into fighting at any catch-weight. Golovkin is the WBC interim middleweight champion.
Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy has been in negotiations with Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler to try and put the fight together. Unfortunately, the fight still isn’t happening, and you can only wonder what the holdup is. By Sulaiman giving an extension to help the negotiations, it is dragging things out. Canelo could always vacate the title if he doesn’t like the direction the negotiations are taking.
So @Canelo… what are your plans for tomorrow?
— Gennady Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) December 13, 2015
Sadly, that wouldn’t be surprising at all as the final outcome of these negotiations. I have a feeling that it will end badly with Canelo either vacating or being stripped of the title. Golovkin would then likely face the next high contender for the vacant WBC title unless the World Boxing Council just wanted to give him the belt due to the hassle he’s already had to endure in waiting for his rightful shot at the belt.
“That bout carries enormous implications and is of great importance for boxing, both in terms of history and for the future of the sport,” Sulaiman said via ESPN.com. “Many details must be addressed for a super fight of that magnitude to actually occur. The boxers’ respective promoters, Golden Boy Promotions and K2 Promotions, have been communicating in good faith to finalize the details of the negotiations for the contest to come to fruition.”
Sulailam will be meeting with the promoters tomorrow in Los Angeles for the negotiations. It’ll be interesting to see if Sulaiman does eventually have to strip Canelo of his WBC title. It would be a pity for Golovkin not to get a chance to fight him now, because if he doesn’t get a chance to fight him at this point, the fight could take place in the future when he’s older.
That would be a situation that would greatly favor the younger Canelo, because he’s only 25 now, and Golovkin is 33. If Golden Boy and Canelo wait out Golovkin, they could choose to face him when he’s lost his skills and starting to look beatable.
The talk is that if the negotiations are completed between Golovkin and Canelo, the two fighters won’t face each other right away. Instead, they’ll meet up down the road in late 2016. This will enable Canelo to get in a voluntary defense first. It’s unclear why Canelo would need fight in between the Golovkin fight. It’s also unclear whether or not there would be a guarantee that Canelo would take the fight with Golovkin after that voluntary defense. You have to remember that Golovkin let the previous WBC champion Cotto fight Canelo with the idea that he would be next in line to fight the winner of the fight.
As the WBC mandatory challenger, Golovkin didn’t need to let the Cotto-Canelo fight go ahead with the WBC title on the line. He could have insisted that he be made, which would have likely led to Cotto vacating the WBC belt rather than facing him. But if the goal posts are going to be moved back an additional time with the new WBC champion Canelo getting a needless voluntary defense, then it makes you wonder what guarantees there will be that Canelo will fight him after that and whether he will push for another delay of the title defense if some other popular fighter shows interest in fighting him.
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