By Dan Ambrose: For fans wanting to know when the Gennayd Golovkin vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight will finally take place, it’s unknown unfortunately. Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) says he’s ready to face Canelo after he takes care of his opponent Dominic Wade this Saturday night on HBO, but Canelo and his promoter Oscar De La Hoya aren’t willing to commit to the Golovkin fight for the fall.
De La Hoya says they have a rematch clause in the contract for the Khan fight, and that the Canelo-Golovkin fight will eventually take place. Canelo is pretty much singing the same tune as De La Hoya, saying that he’s not sure when the fight with GGG will take place.
“There’s a rematch clause because Amir Khan is a real threat,” said De La Hoya to ESPN.com.
“I want to have that fight. I want to give it to the fans. I’m just not sure when. I am focused on Amir Khan,” said Canelo. “I want to be a legend. It’s in my future plans. It’s definitely in my future plans. I want to have that fight. That’s the fight I want. I want to give that to the fans. Right now I’m focused on Amir Khan. That’s my fight. I want to fight three times this year. That’s my plan, but anything can happen in this fight with Amir Khan. Sometimes you have a plan and it changes. So I’m focused 100% on Amir Khan, and we’ll see right after that.”
It’s going to be hard for Canelo to become a legend in the sport if he’s going to avoid fighting Golokvin and if he continues to insist on fighting at catch-weights instead of fighting at the full middleweight limit of 160. Canelo won’t become a legend if his career is going to be based on him pulling welterweights up in weight to fight him at 155. Canelo has already fought a lot of smaller fighters than himself during his career such as Shawn Mosley, Alfonso Gomez, Josesito Lopez, Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Matthew Hatton, Kermit Cintron, Lovemore Ndou and Carlos Manuel Baldomir.
“Obviously that fights going to happen without a doubt,” De La Hoya said about the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight. “It has to happen. It’s not a matter of it but when. That’s the fight that’s the next super fight for boxing. We had Mayweather-Pacquiao, which disappointed everybody, which was a big letdown for many fans. For the news that what want to see boxing, this is out new opportunity to bring back those fans. So I want to make sure this fight has the proper promoting behind it in order to create a big mega-fight with Canelo and Triple G,” said De La Hoya.
Golovkin is 34 now. The longer Canelo and De La Hoya wait before fighting him the better off Canelo will be. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get a lot of credit for beating someone if you wait until they’re old before you finally agree to fight them.
There’s still a possibility that the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight can take place this year, but judging from the comments from Canelo and De La Hoya, I’m beginning to believe that the fight won’t be taking place in 2016. I think it comes down to how well Golovkin is fighting. If he looks great against Wade on Saturday, and continues to look good in his fights after that, I think the fight will continue to get pushed into the future. Of course, Canelo will need to give up his WBC middleweight title. If the World Boxing Council lets Canelo just ignore Golovkin and continue to hand-pick opponents from the welterweight division, then it’s going to make the sanctioning body look like a rubber stamp for whatever Canelo wants to do.
