By Eric Baldwin: It doesn’t look like the much talked about fight between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) will be taking place in 2016, according to Dan Rafael. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler is out of the country right now and Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are still dealing with a lawsuit with Canelo’s past promoters. It is unknown how long that trial will last.
Even when Canelo’s legal problems are over with, it’s doubtful that we’ll see the Canelo-Golovkin fight take place this year. Canelo still has other options for good money fights against beatable fighters like Miguel Cotto, middleweight David Lemieux, Billy Joe Saunders, WBO 154lb champion Liam Smith, and a number of welterweights like Danny Garcia, Kell Brook, Keith “One Time” Thurman, Shawn Porter and Tim Bradley.
I do not think Canelo will fight Porter or Thurman because those would be very tough outs for him, but I do think he could potentially fight someone like Danny Garcia. Bradley would be a easy mark for Canelo due to his small 5’6” size and his lack of punching power.
“I do not believe the fight will happen this year. As for the current state of talks. GGG’s promoter is out of the country and Canelo and Oscar in the middle of a civil trial over Canelo’s contract because another promoter claims he has a valid agreement,” said Rafael during his chat sessions at ESPN.com last Friday. “So until that is over (probably another week or so) any talks are on hold.”
One reason why many boxing fans doubt the Canelo vs. Golovkinf fightt will take place this year is because Canelo can still make good money fighting guys like Cotto again. There are at least 10 to 20 good money fights out there for Canelo to explore before he would need to take a dangerous opponent like Golovkin.
Here are the various opponents that Canelo can still fight BEFORE he needs to fight Golovkin:
Miguel Cotto
Tim Bradley
Kell Brook
Keith Thurman
Danny Garcia
Andre Berto
Lamont Peterson
Jessie Vargas
Shawn Porter
Liam Smith
Jermell Charlo
Jermall Charlo
Erislandy Lara
Julian Williams
David Lemieux
Billy Joe Saunders
Peter Quillin
Daniel Jacobs
Andy Lee
Chris Eubank Jr
If Canelo chooses to fight all 20 of those fighters before facing Golovkin, it would eat up six to seven years of his career fighting all of them. By the time Canelo is finished with all of those fights, Golovkin would be in his early 40s, and probably not the fighter he is today.
Canelo could then face him and the fight fans would still be interested in seeing the match just as they were with the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight, which took six years to materialize and still wound up being a very big fight.
The only question is will Canelo and Golovkin still be at the top of the sport in six to seven years from now or will younger fighters with more youth and talent have replaced them?