By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) reportedly plans on fighting three times in 2016. It looks like Golden Boy Promotions wants to keep the 25-year-old money maker busy this year by having him pack in a lot of fights in a short period of time.
However, it’s going to be next to impossible for Canelo to fight three times if one of the opponents he faces in 2016 is Gennady Golovkin, the IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion. Canelo’s first fight this year is going to be on May 7. If Canelo plans on fighting Golovkin in September on the Mexican holiday, it means that he’s going to need to stay outside of the ring after his fight in May until he faces Golovkin in September.
If Canelo tries to squeeze in another fight before the Golovkin fight in September, it’s going to be too much of an injury risk for Canelo. There’s no way he’ll be able to do that without the risk of him suffering some kind of injury that will mess up his bigger fight against Golovkin.
The only way Canelo is going to be able to fight a third time in 2016 is if he fights in the last three months of the year, likely in December. That’s still not much time for Canelo to recover from what could be a beating in September. The last thing that Canelo needs is to go into a December fight beat up from the Golovkin bout, and then wind up losing to some scrub that is dug up for him by Golden Boy.
As the opponents for Canelo’s fights, it doesn’t look like Golden Boy is going to be taking any chances with their golden goose Canelo. We’re already hearing that an offer has been made to WBO 154lb champion Liam Smith to beat Canelo’s opponent for May 7. However, just because an offer has been made to Smith doesn’t mean that’s the guy they’re necessarily looking at.
It’s likely that Golden Boy will make offers to a number of fighters and then go with the best of the bunch that was willing to take the least amount of money for the fight. I really wouldn’t be surprised if Golden Boy offers some of the smaller fighters from the welterweight division a shot at fighting Canelo.
Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya has already said that his dream fight is to put Canelo in with Amir Khan. With Khan having been rejected several times by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, he might be in a weakened position mentally where he’ll cave in and accept an unwinnable fight against Canelo just so that he can finally get a big name that is willing to fight him.
It would still give Khan a good payday, but obviously not the kind of money that he’d get if he were to take on IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook. I think Khan doesn’t want the potential shame that would go along with that fight if he were to lose it. Losing to the much bigger Canelo doesn’t have the same negative impact as it would for Khan to lose to a guy his own size and in the same division as him like Brook.
What we won’t like see is Golden Boy risking Canelo’s soft hide by putting him in with some of the dangerous fighters from the 154lb division like Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, Erislandy Lara and Demetrius Andrade. I think Canelo’s bad experience in his life and death struggle against Lara has put him and Golden Boy off from fighting any additional talented fighters from the junior middleweight division.
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