By Dan Ambrose: Tom Loeffler is reportedly petitioning the World Boxing Council at the WBC’s convention this week to have the order a trilogy fight between Gennady Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez due to controversial scoring by the judges that worked the second fight between the two stars on September 15 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The judges scored it for Canelo (50-1-2, 34 KOs) in giving him the win by the scores 115-113, 115-113 and 114-114.
If the WBC chooses not to order the Canelo-Golovkin rematch, then they’re going to need to order Canelo to face his WBC mandatory challenger Jermall Charlo, who has been waiting 15 months for his WBC mandated title shot. Golden Boy Promotions needs to pick their poison when it comes to fights. If Canelo wants to remain the WBC champion, he’s going to need to fight Golovkin or Charlo.
Golovkin’s management are going to have a very tough time trying to negotiate the rematch with Canelo this time around given his loss to the Mexican fighter. Even though the defeat was controversial, Golden Boy could possibly use the loss for Golovkin to justify a bigger percentage cut for Canelo then last time and perhaps even more than in the first fight. Golovkin could be stuck with a take it or leave it 70-30 or 75-25 split. Golden Boy and Canelo likely won’t lose sleep if Golovkin refuses the offer, as they now have a win over him in the record books, albeit a controversial one.
Assuming the WBC does order a trilogy fight between Canelo and GGG, it’s likely going to go back to Las Vegas once again. That’s the location where the fight will make the most money, and that seems to be the overriding interest from the promoters. Sticking it in Las Vegas once again will arguably help Canelo, as he’s a fan favorite there and he’s important to the city due to the influx of dollars washes over that location each time he fights there. If Golovkin’s team wanted a city where they might get potentially better scoring, they would need to dig in their heels and insist the trilogy fight take place in New York. However, with Canelo being the A-side in the negotiations, he’s the decider of where his fights will take place. That could mean the trilogy fight will need to take place in Las Vegas or not at all.
Golden Boy and Canelo obviously want the rematch with GGG, but not if they have to make less money by fighting in a venue that might not favor them as much. Canelo’s negotiating muscle means he dictates where the third fight with Golovkin takes place, and that likely means it’s going back to Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. If Golovkin wants a win over Canelo in the third fight, then he needs to stop throwing jabs, backing up and looking to box him. Golovkin needs to come forward at all time and look to KO him with every punch. If the judges are going to continually score fights in a controversial way that favors Canelo in the minds of the boxing public, then Golovkin needs to change the way he fights and start being the knockout artist that he was in the past.
Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions seem to be interested in putting him back in with Golovkin in time, but not in 2018 or in early 2019. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya wants Golovkin to get a couple of fights under his belt before he makes the rematch with him and Canelo. Golovkin won’t be fighting for the remainder of 2018, as he reportedly will be resting for the remainder of the year and letting the cut that he suffered in the Canelo rematch heal. The cut was caused by a clash of heads.
In case that De La Hoya is firm on Golovkin needing to win two fights before he faces Canelo in a rematch, then it’s possible that the trilogy fight will either take place in December of 2019 or in the first quarter of 2020. That works for Canelo, because the 36-year-old Golovkin will be 37 to 38 by the time the trilogy fight takes place.
Loeffler, who promotes the previously unbeaten former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin (36-1-1, 34 KOs), feels that the scoring was off with the judges for both the first and second fights against the 28-year-old Canelo. The first Canelo-GGG fight last year in September 2017 was scored a 12 round draw in a fight that the boxing world saw Triple G winning by eight rounds to four. The rematch was considered to be a closer affair with fans believing GGG won by 7 rounds to 5. The judges gave Canelo the deciding 12th round. This is a round that Golovkin landed the better shots and outworked Canelo.
The boxing fans obviously wouldn’t mind so much if the WBC orders a trilogy fight between Canelo and Golovkin, as that’s the fight they want to see. There’s no demand from the fans to see Canelo fight the likes of Demetrius Andrade, Billy Joe Saunders, Daniel Jacobs, Ryota Murata, Sergiy Derevyanchenko or Jermall Charlo. Golovkin is the guy the fans want to see him fight again. The hardcore boxing fans want to see Canelo fight Charlo, but the casual fans aren’t pushing for that fight yet.
There might not be as much interest in the Canelo-GGG 3 fight as their was in the first two due to the judging having tainted those two fights. The third fight will still do good numbers and far better than anything from Canelo for any fights that Golden Boy can have for them unless they want to get really adventurous by pulling the highly popular Errol Spence Jr. from welterweight to take the fight with their star. Granted that the boxing fans think that Golovkin needs a knockout in order to beat Canelo, there’s probably going to be fewer PPV buys for a third Canelo-Golovkin fight because many of the fans now think the judges are automatically giving Alvarez decision wins or draws to keep the popular star from losing his star power.
Canelo will possibly be fighting on December 15 against David Lemieux of Golden Boy. This isn’t a fight that is in demand. It’s more of a stay busy fight to keep Canelo in the public eye, and to get him the second fight in 2018, as he likes to fight twice a year. Canelo missed his May 5 date after he was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for twice testing positive for a banned substance clenbuterol. Canelo blamed his positive tests on having eaten contaminated beef. Canelo’s contract with HBO has expired, and he could be with one of the following networks/streaming platforms: DAZN, ESPN, FOX or Showtime.
From Canelo’s standpoint, if he truly believes he won his two fights against Golovkin, as he maintains, then he can move on and fight other fighters without being conflicted. However, Canelo will need to be able to live with the majority of the boxing public thinking he was given gift decisions in his fights with Golovkin. As long as Canelo can sleep at night and ignore the fans, he can move on if he thinks he really won the two fights with Golovkin. Never the less, Canelo will make less money fighting other guys than he will fighting Golovkin. There’s a business side to this as well. The money for Canelo is against Golovkin. There’s just as much risk for Canelo fighting guys like Charlo as there is in fighting Golovkin. On the assumption that the WBC orders Canelo to fight Charlo next, he’s going to be facing someone that could be an even tougher fight for him than what he just dealt with in his two fights against GGG. The 28-year-old Charlo, 6’0″, is bigger, faster and just as powerful as Golovkin. Charlo has a better jab, longer reach and he’s a better combination puncher than Golovkin. Charlo throws body punches unlike Golovkin. Charlo is also a counter puncher, which makes him a serious threat to beating Canelo. At the end of the day, Golden Boy will likely not want any of that smoke from Charlo, and will gladly accept the WBC’s decision to have Canelo face Golovkin in a rematch assuming they make that move. Even if the WBC doesn’t order a third Canelo-GGG fight, look for Canelo to vacate his title with that organization to avoid the responsibility of having to defend the belt against the dangerous Charlo.