By Chris Williams: It looks like IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) is going to need to swallow his pride and agree to some kind of catch-weight if he wants to fight WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) in September for the WBC title.
Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso says they absolutely will not fight Golovkin at 160. They feel comfortable at 155lbs, and even at 154. With that said, Reynoso says the negotiation will be very important between the two fighters. Golovkin might want to give in to Canelo if he really wants this fight.
If Golovkin insists on taking the fight at the full weight for the middleweight division, then I think he’ll end up getting the WBC title but not the Canelo fight. The WBC title is worthless without a big name for Golovkin to fight. We’re already seeing ha now with Golovkin having held onto the WBA title for quite some time, and he still hasn’t fought anyone popular.
It’ll be the same thing if Golovkin picks up the vacant WBC title without fighting Canelo. He’ll be the paper champion, but he won’t have anyone to fight and he’ll never be popular like Canelo or Mayweather. Golovkin needs to either agree to fight Canelo at 155 or one or two pounds heavier. I think that might be doable for him to get the fight. If Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler are stubborn about it, then they’ll wind up with no Canelo fight.
In the same interview, Reynoso seems to be dropping a hint that Canelo might be willing to move up from the 155lb catch-weight to a higher catch-weight. Golovkin might be able to get the fight against Canelo if he agrees to meet him halfway between 155 and 160. We’re probably talking about 157 at the most. I doubt Canelo will come up to 158, because that’s too close to what Golovkin has been weighing in at for his fights.
In Golovkin’s last nine fights, he’s weighed in at 159 each time. A catch-weight of 158 wouldn’t even be beneficial for Canelo. He might as well have none at all. That’s why I think 156 or 157 might do it. Golovkin will probably have to give Canelo more money to get the higher catch-weight, but at least he would partially get his way by having the weight increased a little.
“We have always been facing toughest fighters: [Floyd] Mayweather, [Miguel] Cotto, who are much better than Golovkin,” said Reynoso to estoenlinea.oem.com.mx. “Also with [Austin] Trout, [Erislandy] Lara, [Alfredo] Angulo, at the time we face them, we had no problems with the negotiations. Boxing is also negotiation. The plan is that Canelo wants to fight at 155 pounds. Right now, we do not plan to go up to 160 pounds. I do not see in the history of Kazakh who has faced anyone to be afraid, no one names. Ah, yes, there is one, ‘Poison’ [Marco Antonio] Rubio.”
Reynoso is right. Golovkin hasn’t fought anyone good enough for them to be scared of him. He’s fought a lot of weak opponents during his career, and he didn’t even look good in his last couple of fights against David Lemieux and Willie Monroe Jr. Golovkin looked afraid of Lemieux, and he fought like he was afraid of him.
In Golovkin’s fight against Willie Monroe last year, Golovkin was all out of breath after just three rounds. He looked winded and tired. If that had been a real opponent in the ring with Golovkin, he would have lost. Mayweather saw the Golovkin-Monroe fight and he said if he had any time to work with Monroe, he could train him to beat Golovkin. Mayweather was not impressed with what he saw from Golovkin.
“The negotiation is very important and we have to do what is really appropriate, and that De La Hoya take care of us,” said Reynoso. “We can handle fights at 154 pounds. If we fight in 155, it was because Cotto wanted it. We do not hide from anyone.”
Canelo will do well even without a fight against Golovkin or without the WBC middleweight title. Canelo never cared about winning the WBC belt. The only reason why he fought for the WBC title was because he wanted the fight against Miguel Cotto.
Comments are closed.