Golden Boy executive says Canelo’s options wide open for September 17

By Boxing News - 06/16/2016 - Comments

Image: Golden Boy executive says Canelo’s options wide open for September 17

By Allan Fox: Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) are looking to reserve several venues for their No.1 money fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for his next fight on September 17. Earlier on Thursday, Golden Boy booked the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. They’re also looking to reserve Madison Square Garden in New York, and the giant AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

GBP Vice President Eric Gomez says Miguel Cotto is an option for Canelo, as is IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Gomez will be meeting with Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler on Monday to discuss a possible fight. If the fight works for Canelo and Golden Boy, then they’ll do it.

One major thing that is working against the Canelo-Golovkin fight taking place for September 17 is that there won’t be much time to negotiate and market the fight due to the three weeks that Golden Boy spent dealing with Canelo’s lawsuit with his former promoters at All-Star Boxing. The case just completed earlier this week. There might not be enough time for the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight to get made for September. It might be better for Canelo to fight a rematch against Cotto or fight someone else like WBO light middleweight champion Liam Smith.

“We’re going to sit down with Tom Loeffler. If it’s something that benefits all of us — whether it’s time to do the fight in September, whether there’s enough time to put a great promotion together — we’re going to give it a real shot. We’re going to see exactly what they’re looking for and if we can make it happen, we’ll make it happen. And if not, then there’s a slew of other guys out there,” said Gomez to RingTV.com. ”There’s a possible rematch with (Miguel) Cotto.”

It might not be fair to Canelo to take the fight with Golovkin for September because it would be too much of a rush for the fight to be done proper for the fight that it is. Golden Boy, Canelo and Golovkin need to push the fight to next year for May 2017 or September. By that time, Canelo will likely have captured a world title at 154 or 160, and that will further make the fight against Golovkin bigger fight. Canelo needs a title to make the fight a bigger event, and they need more time to market the fight slowly.

The negotiations will take a lot of time as well, and that can’t be rushed. If Canelo needs a catch-weight of some kind, then Golden Boy need to tell Loeffer and Golovkin what weight that’ll be. It might take time for Golovkin to think it over and come to terms with what he’ll need to do weight-wise and money-wise for him to get the fight against Canelo. At least if Golden Boy tells Golovkin now, he an think it over for a number of months and decide whether he wants the fight badly enough to take the money offered and fight at the catch-weight that is being asked of them. It’ll work out well for Golovkin as well if he doesn’t take the fight right now with Canelo, because he can fight someone like Chris Eubank Jr., WBA champion Daniel Jacobs or Billy Joe Saunders in 2016. If Golovkin can beat any or all of those fighters before he faces Canelo, it’ll make him a bigger name and it will make the fight against Canelo a lot bigger than it would be if he were to fight him in September off the back of a win over Dominic Wade.

There’s a lot of money to be made for Canelo and Cotto in a rematch. That fight really should come first before the Golovkin match if it’s possible to get Cotto back in the ring this year. If Cotto doesn’t want to fight, then Canelo can look to fight Liam Smith or the winner of the Keith Thurman vs. Shawn Porter fight. Thurman doesn’t seem eager to move up to 154 right now, so he might not be agreeable to fight Canelo, even though it would greatly help his career out by making him more visible to the casual boxing fans. Middleweight David Lemieux would be a good option for Canelo as well if Golden Boy wants to make that fight.

Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy said he didn’t want to make the Canelo-Lemieux fight soon because he wanted more time to go before making that fight. However, if Canelo doesn’t have any other interesting options for him for his September 17 fight, then it might be in Golden Boy’s best interest to make the Canelo-Lemieux fight.