By Dan Ambrose: Gennady Golovkin will be going back to Las Vegas, Nevada to fight Saul Canelo Alvarez at the same venue as his previous fight against the Mexican star at the T-Mobile Arena, according to Lance Pugmire. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler says the rematch will be right back at the T-Mobile Arena, which means GGG will need to take his chances with the Nevada State Athletic Commission assigned judges.
The last time Golovkin fought Canelo in Nevada, the judges scored the fight a 12 round raw on September 16, 2017. Most of the boxing world saw the fight as a victory for Golovkin.
”Loeffler says the GGG-Canelo rematch will be in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena,” said Lance Pugmire of the LA Times on his social media site.
What this means is IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) may need a knockout for him to win the fight if we have similar scoring as last time he fought Canelo. If the judges are only concerned with scoring rounds based on one or two hard shots landed while ignoring things like higher work rate and ring generalship, then Golovkin may find himself either losing the fight or getting another draw.
Since Loeffler has agreed to let the rematch take place in Las Vegas again, he needs to be a little more assertive than last time when it comes to the selection of the judges. It’s Loeffler’s job to make sure he speaks up if the judges that are assigned to the fight by the Nevada Commission have a history of scoring fights in controversial ways, because we may see a repeat with the judges scoring the fight in an odd manner that makes zero sense. The boxing crowd is going to be on Canelo’s side again because this is his venue. Canelo has been fighting in Las Vegas for many years now, and GGG has only fought there once in his fight with Canelo.
Loeffler says he was set to match Golovkin against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) if the Canelo fight hadn’t been made. The deal was in place for GGG to fight the 28-year-old Saunders, who recently pulled out of his June 23 title defense against former four-time world title challenger Martin Murray. Instead, Saunders gets left high and dry without the Golovkin fight. That has to be a terrible feeling for Saunders, but then again what goes around comes around. He left Murray on the side of the road by pulling out of their rematch due to a hamstring injury.
”We definitely had an agreement in place with Billy Joe Saunders,” Loeffler said to ESPN.com about Golovkin. ”I was up front with them and told them if there’s a way to get the Canelo deal that was a priority but Gennady had no hesitation fighting Billy Joe Saunders, because he felt it was a challenging fight to fight an undefeated champion,” Loeffler said.
Had the Golovkin vs. Saunders fight taken place, it would have gone down in August rather than September. I’m not sure that it would have gone over well with the U.S boxing fan any more so than GG’s recent fight against Vanes Martirosyan. That’s not to say that it would have brought in bad ratings on HBO World Championship Boxing because Golovkin brings in good ratings no matter no matter who he fights. But it wouldn’t have been a huge fight for the fans Saunders isn’t well-known with the American fans. The U.S hardcore boxing fans that know of Saunders aren’t impressed with him.
Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) started working out this week for the first time since having surgery on his right knee. He now has three months to strengthen his knee before he steps foot inside the ring to face GGG on September 15 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Golden Boy Promotions had set a 12 noon deadline on Wednesday for Golovkin and Leoffler to agree to the 42 ½ percent percentage place they were offering for the Canelo fight. Golovkin let the deadline pass by without agreeing to the split. This set Oscar De La Hoya off with him saying the fight was off, and that Canelo was moving on.
”I’m happy to inform that we have a fight on September 15!!!! ! #CaneloGGG2,” De La Hoya said.