By Dan Ambrose: Despite WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and his trainer insisting that Canelo still needs to fight at 155lbs for his fights at middleweight, IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin thinks it makes no sense for the 25-year-old Canelo needing catch-weights for his fights in the middleweight division.
Golovkin says Canelo is the same weight as him, and he should be fighting at the full weight of 160lbs for the middleweight division. Golovkin says Canelo will come in at 155, and then balloon up to 175lbs the next day when he fights.
Golovkin sees Canelo as a middleweight. Golovkin also doesn’t like the idea of Canelo fighting the much smaller welterweight Manny Pacquiao. Golovkin sees that as unfair and bad for the sport of boxing having such a size mismatch like that.
Golovkin is getting ready for a title defense this month against challenger Dominic Wade on April 23. Golovkin is hoping that a victory over Wade will result in a fight against Canelo. Golovkin wants to collect all the middleweight titles, and Canelo has one of the two remaining titles not in his possession. The other belt is in possession of WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders, who Golovkin could wind up facing this year if he can’t get a fight against Canelo.
“A unification fight, I hope,” said Golovkin when asked what he wants to do after the Wade fight. “Canelo, he’s a great fighter. I think he’s ready.”
Canelo is definitely ready to fight Golovkin. I don’t see Canelo getting any better right now. If anything, Canelo will get heavier and will likely soon have problems making even the full weight for the middleweight division. I don’t know what Canelo will do then.
My guess is he’ll fight at whatever weight he can make, and then drag middleweights, junior middleweights and welterweights up to that weight. If it’s 163 or 164, then I see that being Canelo’s new catch-weight. I don’t think he’ll agree to fight at the full weight for the super middleweight division at 168. This means that if super middleweights want to fight him, they might need to melt down to whatever weight that Canelo feels comfortable at.
When asked if Canelo is a middleweight, Golovkin said “Absolutely, yeah. He’s the same size as me. His weight is like me. He wants 155. This is difficult. He’s middleweight champion. Middleweight is 160. This is for business [Canelo fight,” said Golovkin about Canelo potentially fighting the much smaller welterweight Manny Pacquiao. “I think Canelo is too big for Manny. Right now for what? 155? I think it’s too much for Manny. Canelo’s coming in at 155, and next day is 175. He’s too big. That’s not to respect boxing sport. No. Yeah, I don’t like that fight because he’s too big. Canelo, he’s in the middleweight division. He’s not 140 or 147,” said Golovkin.
There’s no question that Canelo is essentially the same size as Golovkin. If anything, Canelo might be a little bit bigger than Golovkin, who comes into his fights at 170. Canelo comes into his fights around 175. Which means he’s heavier than Golovkin by five pounds. The sad thing is if Golovkin doesn’t agree to the 155lb catch-weight that Canelo has been fighting at in the last two years, then there probably won’t be a fight between the two of them in 2016. If they do face each other in 2017, I would be really surprised.
“I don’t watch a lot of fights. I know my job,” said Golovkin to Fighthub.com. “I know my situation. I don’t know a lot about Dominic Wade. I know my job. I know he had a long amateur career, and so have I am not scared. I understand the situation. Dominic Wade is not a big name. It doesn’t matter for me. Every step is bigger, bigger, bigger. I have Dominic Wade. He’s undefeated. He’s a serious boxer. He’s got good amateur experience. It’s not so easy fight for me,” said Golovkin.
Golovkin has to take the Wade fight very serious because if he loses that fight then he can forget about fighting Canelo and Saunders for their titles. They would have an excuse not to have to fight him. Golovkin cannot afford to have any slipups in the Wade fight because it’ll wreck his other plans for important fights.
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