By Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler says the winner of the May 7 fight between WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) and Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) will have 15 days to decide whether they’ll defend the WBC 160lb title against Golovkin next.
If they choose not to face him, then they’ll be stripped of the title by the World Boxing Council for failing to face Golovkin, the mandatory challenger. According to Loeffler, they have it in writing that the winner of the Canelo-Khan fight must make a decision whether to face GGG.
There’s already talk of Canelo having a rematch clause in the contract with Khan that he can use if he loses the fight. What this means that if Canelo loses the fight to Khan, then it’s academic that Canelo won’t be facing Golovkin in his next fight. Canelo would either be stripped of his WBC title or he would vacate so that he can face Khan for a second fight. If Canelo beats Khan, then you can bet that he’ll give Golovkin a take it or leave it offer of a fight at 155lb catch-weight. If Golovkin says no, then Canelo will almost surely vacate the WBC title and move on.
“It wasn’t our side that asked for the voluntary defense. It was a request from Canelo and Golden Boy,” Loeffler said via ESPN.com. “It builds the fight with Canelo and Gennady. We have the voluntary defense against Wade, Canelo has his against Khan and after that it’s clearly stipulated that the winner of Canelo-Khan has 15 days to say they will fight Gennady (or Wade) or they’ll get stripped of the title. It’s in writing, but I can’t predict if Canelo will take the fight or not.”
I get the feeling that Canelo will choose to vacate his WBC middleweight title even if Golovkin agrees to the catch-weight at 155lbs, and whatever other hoops that are put in front of him to get the fight. I think Golovkin will do everything that’s asked of him to get the fight, but at the end of the day, I see Canelo walking away rather than taking the fight and suffering a knockout loss.
The best possible thing that could happen to Golovkin would be for Khan to beat Canelo. But even that won’t work well for Golovkin due to the rematch clause for the Canelo-Khan fight. Instead of Khan fighting Golovkin in his next fight, he’ll have to fight Canelo a second time. However, I have no doubts that Khan would eventually face Golovkin if he’s able to beat Canelo in back to back fights. That’s not going to be easy because of how much heavier Canelo is compared to Khan.
Canelo might choose to bulk up for this fight like he did against Miguel Cotto last November, and Khan would be entering the ring against a guy that theoretically has a 20 pound weight advantage over him. I know Floyd Mayweather Jr. showed that it doesn’t matter how much bigger Canelo was compared to him. He was still able to dominate him. But Khan isn’t Mayweather, and even Mayweather didn’t have to deal with a Canelo that out-weighed him by 20 pounds inside the ring.
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