By Dan Ambrose: Gennady Golovkin has doubts that he’ll be fighting Saul Canelo Alvarez on September 15, according to Yahoo Sports News. Golovkin gives it only a 10% chance that he’ll be fighting Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) on September 15.
Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) states that he gave most of the concessions to get the rematch with Canelo on May 5, but then the Mexican star tested positive for clenbuterol and dropped out of the fight. Golovkin is still fighting on Saturday but against replacement opponent Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya says Canelo will be drug tested every day for PEDs, but according to Kevin Iole, that has not happened. It’s now unclear whether Canelo will be tested until he starts training camp for his September 15 fight. If that’s the case, then Canelo will have had many months with no testing.
Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez feels that Golovkin is now scared to fight Canelo after their first fight. He thinks that Golovkin’s negative talk about a rematch with Canelo is a sign of fear on his part. Gomez says he wants Canelo to fight Golovkin in September. That’s the fight that he wants, but if Golovkin doesn’t want to take it, then Canelo will go in another direction towards his next option.
Although Gomez doesn’t say who that fighter would be, it’s expected to be fringe contender Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan. He’s one of Golden Boy’s fighters in their stable, and he’s good puncher. However, O’Sullivan is not highly thought of by the boxing public, and it’ll look like Canelo is picking a weak opponent to avoid the dangerous guys if he faces him. Golovkin is taking heat for fighting Martirosyan, but he has an excuse for facing because he only had a short period of time to find a replacement.
Canelo won’t be able to carve out an existence at middleweight if he’s going to swerve the top guys like Jermall Charlo, Sergey Derevyanchenko, Billy Joe Saunders and Daniel Jacobs. Canelo has to fight Golovkin, because that’s his money fight and he might get lucky with the judging again, which was arguably very bad last September. The judges scored the Canelo-GGG fight a 12 round draw, and those scores were seen as off the charts bad.
“I would say it’s about a 10 percent probability at this point that it happens,” Golovkin said to Yahoo Sports News. “I would say only about 10 percent that it happens.”
It sounds like Golovkin wants to know for certain that Canelo is going to be drug tested continually in the months leading up to their rematch. If the drug testing for Canelo only starts during training camp, rather than year round, then it’s going to require a lot of faith on Golovkin’s part that the red-haired Mexican star has been clean all the months that he wasn’t tested.
Golovkin, 36, has been very upset since he first learned that Canelo tested positive twice for clenbuterol while training for their cancelled fight on May 5. Golovkin trashed Canelo after that, pegging him as a drug cheat, who he felt had knowingly used clenbuterol instead of having tested positive due to consuming tainted beef in Mexico. Golovkin doesn’t buy Canelo’s tainted beef excuse.
Golden Boy Promotions says the negative results from Canelo’s hair follicle test are proof that he didn’t intentionally use clenbuterol. Golovkin saying that he believes the rematch only has a 10 percent chance of happening suggests that he doubts still.
“No, it shouldn’t be,” De La Hoya said to TMZ.com when asked if the Canelo-GGG 2 fight will be tainted due to Canelo’s positive tests for clenbuterol last February. “Canelo is a clean fighter and he’ll get tested every single day from now until the fight.”
The testing of Canelo isn’t being done, according to Yahoo Sports. The important question is when will Canelo begin to be tested again? Does the testing begin in a week or two or will it wait until he starts training camp for the rematch with GGG. Will Golovkin feel secure about fighting Canelo again if he’s not tested for two to three months? If Canelo isn’t tested until July or August, then it would mean that he will have had no testing since early April. World Boxing President Mauricio Sulaiman said recently that Canelo tested negative in early April.
It’s now May 3 and there have been reports of Canelo being tested recently. Does Golovkin agree to fight Canelo if he’s had a 3 to 4 month window of no testing? Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler might be able to persuade the Kazakhstan fighter to still take the fight with Canelo, but it’s possible that the fight won’t happen for another reason. Golovkin has the IBF mandatory contender Sergey Derevyanchenko that he needs to face by August 3 if he wants to keep his IBF 160lb. title. If Golovkin fights Derevyanchenko in July or August, then it’ll be hard for him to get back into training camp to fight Canelo on September 15.
“The Golovkin fight is option No. 1 for Canelo, and we’re going to do everything we can to get that fight made,” Gomez said to Yahoo Sports News. “But if Golovkin doesn’t want the fight, we’ll move on and fight a different opponent.”
The predictable opponents for Canelo to fight in the next two years after the book is closed on the Golovkin fight are these fighters:
• David Lemieux
• Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan
• Kell Brook
• Sadam Ali
• Ryota Murata
• David Benavidez
• George Groves
• Callum Smith
Golden Boy will likely continue to match Canelo against smaller fighters from the 154 lb. weight class from time to time, but not the dangerous ones like Jarrett Hurd or Jermell Charlo. I see Golden Boy putting Canelo in with the beatable 154 lb. fighters like Kell Brook and Sadam Ali. I also think Golden Boy will pick out some super middleweights to match against Canelo like Benavidez, Groves and Callum Smith. As far as middleweights go, I don’t see Golden Boy ever letting Canelo fight Jermall Charlo or Sergey Derevyanchenko. Those guys are too good. Daniel Jacobs might be a future possible option for Canelo if he continues to look bad like he did against Maciek Sulecki and Luis Arias.