By Sean Jones: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez says his priority for his next fight is a rematch tiebreaker fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for next May. That’s the fight that Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) wants, and he says he’ll try to make it. However, Canelo says it’s up to Golovkin and his management if they want to negotiate the fight.
Canelo will try and make the fight for next May. Canelo has a rematch clause in his contract with Golovkin from their September 16 fight. Canelo will likely be exercising the clause for him to face Golovkin on May 5 on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo. The Canelo-Golovkin fight will almost surely be heading back to Las Vegas, Nevada. It won’t be the same judges as last time for the rematch, so there’s hope that the Nevada State Athletic Commission can find some competent judges that know how to score a fight.
The last thing Canelo and Golovkin need is another controversial decision to taint their second fight. Golovkin will likely make it a priority to knock Canelo out in the rematch, especially if the fight takes place in Las Vegas. If Golovkin can knockout Canelo, then the judges won’t play a factor in the fight. They’ll sit and watch and the boxing world can avoid another embarrassing outcome like the one on September 16.
The rematch between Canelo and Golovkin should solve everything, as long as the judges do a competent job. The boxing public felt the judges did a dreadful job of scoring the September 16 Canelo vs. Golovkin fight. With the fight being a draw, Golovkin was able to keep his IBF, IBO, WBA, and WBC titles. Canelo didn’t fight for Golovkin’s WBC title, but it was still on the line for the fight.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler says getting the rematch with Canelo is the main goal that they have. Golovkin is sitting out of the ring until May. That’s what Golden Boy wants. They’re reluctant to let Golovkin risk suffering an injury by fighting in December or him potentially getting beat. Golovkin and Loeffler are counting on the rematch taking place with Canelo next May. If it doesn’t, then they’ll have missed out on a payday in December by agreeing with Golden Boy’s wishes for them not to fight until next year.
“It’s up to them [if they want to make a deal for the rematch]. I’m in for the tiebreaker,” said Canelo to ESPN Deportes. ”We have to negotiate, we’re ready, it’s my priority for May.”
Canelo and the unbeaten Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) met on September 16 in a fight that was highly anticipated in Las Vegas, Nevada at the T-Mobile Arena. Despite Golovkin outworking Canelo and controlling 8 rounds, the judges scored the fight a 12 round draw. One judge even gave Canelo the fight by a score of 118-110, which translates to 10 rounds to 2 in favor of the red-haired Mexican star. Another judge scored the fight 114-114. This judge had Canelo winning round 7. Most boxing fans and writers that saw the fight felt that the 7th round was Golovkin’s best round of the fight.
It came a round after Canelo had used a showboating move by putting Golovkin in a head-lock and then hitting him with a punch thrown behind his back in the 6th. That illegal move angered Golovkin, who tore into Canelo at the start of the 7th round and pummeled him for the entire round. The judge that scored the fight 114-114 still had Canelo winning the 7th. The judge that appeared to be seeing the fight clearly scored it 115-113 in favor of Golovkin. Commentators Paulie Malignaggi and Teddy Atlas felt that Golovkin easily won the fight 9 rounds to 3. 8-4 was even too generous to Canelo, and 7 rounds to 5 for Golovkin were too close for the fight that took place that night. Boxing News 24 scored the fight 9 rounds to 3 in Golovkin’s favor.
It’ll be interesting to see if Golovkin can get the rematch in May or if the rematch will be prolonged in order for Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy to squeeze Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler to get a great deal that favors them. Canelo will be getting his biggest payday of his career for the first fight. It’s unclear how much money he’ll make because the pay-per-view numbers from HBO haven’t been tabulated as of yet. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions said before the fight that he would easily make $50 million for the fight. Golovkin is expected to make $15 million. Without Golovkin getting the victory in the first fight, it may prevent him and his promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions from getting a better deal in the rematch.
Golden Boy may negotiate hard to get the rematch in Las Vegas. That’s not where Golovkin wants the second fight. He wants an even playing field, and he doesn’t want the rematch to take place in Vegas again for obvious reason. It would be to Golden Boy’s benefit to show good will to Golovkin and Loeffler by being open to take the fight out of Las Vegas. By Golden Boy insisting that the second fight take place in Las Vegas, it gives the appearance that they need the fight to take place in that city for them to have a chance of winning a decision or getting another draw.
In hindsight, it was Golovkin and Loeffler’s mistake to let the first fight take place in Las Vegas. Canelo had fought in Las Vegas on 7 times prior to the Golovkin fight, and they were all huge fights that brought a lot of money into the city. As such, Canelo had done big business for Las Vegas. In contrast, Golovkin had never fought there. There was a huge power imbalance between the 2 fighters when it came to popularity in Las Vegas, and which of the two meant more to the city historically. Golovkin and Loeffler should have negotiated to have the fight staged in another state, but they didn’t and the results saw Golovkin fail to get the victory in a fight that he appeared to dominate.
“For me the priority is [the rematch]. Right now I’m going to rest, but the priority is the tiebreaker in May. We will try to make the fight, do the best we can do to make it in May,” said Canelo.
Whether Canelo wants to admit it or not, he’s got his back against the wall when it comes to his next move. If Canelo and Golden Boy negotiate themselves out of the rematch in May, then it’s going to look like they ducked Golovkin to avoid getting beaten. The boxing public will think Canelo is trying to age Golovkin more and string the rematch out to the point where Golovkin isn’t the same fighter. If Canelo doesn’t fight Golovkin, he would have to fight contenders like Daniel Jacobs, Jermall Charlo and Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
Just fighting David Lemieux isn’t going to be enough. Lemieux is not seen in the same light as the likes of Jacobs, Charlo and Derevyanchenko. Canelo will need to fight those guys, because he’ll look silly if he just goes after the arguably softer fighters like Hassan NDam, who lost to Lemieux in the past, and Ryota Murata. There are only a small handful of talented fighters in the middleweight. Canelo would need to fight them or else he would look bad. I don’t know that Canelo can beat any of those fighters. He doesn’t have the engine to fight hard for more than 1 minute of each round.
I don’t think Canelo beat the top dogs at 160 with his limited stamina unless he gets judging like we saw in the Canelo-Golovkin fight. It’ll look bad if Canelo keeps getting controversial decisions like that. He’s already been involved in 3 controversial decisions in the last 4 years with his fights against Austin Trout, Erislandy Lara and now Golovkin. Canelo has to take that fight with Golovkin or else he’s going to look bad.