Canelo vs. Saunders possible for May, Golovkin trilogy in September

By Boxing News - 11/11/2019 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Saul Canelo Alvarez could be facing WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in May in a unification, and then a trilogy match against Gennadiy Golovkin in September according to sources with ESPN.

Nothing is agreed with at this time, but it’s quite possible that Saunders and GGG will be facing Canelo Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) in his two slots in 2020.

Preliminary talks have already started between Canelo’s camp and Saunders’ management, according to @ChrisMannix.

Canelo Alvarez currently holds world titles in three weight classes in showing that he’s a modern day Henry Armstrong. Alvarez stopped WBO 175-lb champion Sergey Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs) in the 11th round on November 2 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Canelo made it clear after the fight that he wants to defend his titles at 160 and 168, and he’s ready to move down in weight to do that. He’s held the WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight title 11 months since defeating champion Rocky Fielding last December.

Billy Joe Saunders

The 31-year-old Saunders did his part to keep in the Canelo sweepstakes by defeating Marcelo Coceres by an 11th round knockout last Saturday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Of the 3 other champions at 168, Saunders (29-0, 14 KOs) would likely be the easiest for Canelo to unify against.

If the idea is for Canelo to start with the weakest and then build up there, then Saunders would be a great choice for him. Saunders was on his way to losing to Coceres before knocking him down three times in the 11th to get a knockout.

The way that Saunders fought, he didn’t perform well enough to rate a fight against Canelo. He admits that, but he still feels that Canelo need to fight him. Saunders blames his poor effort on him being sick and jet-lagged from long travel from the UK.

“There’s no excuses. The performance was not worthy Canelo or Jacobs, but I came here five days before,” said Saunders.

Gennadiy Golovkin 

GGG (40-1-1, 35 KOs) is defending his IBF middleweight title against his mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs) in January or February. The date of Golovkin’s title defense makes it impossible to face Canelo in May. It’s too short of a turnaround time, and Canelo isn’t going to take the risk of waiting to see if GGG can make it through the fight with Kamil without getting injured.

Golovkin almost lost his last fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko in barely beating him to win the vacant IBF middleweight title on October 5.

Canelo has the option of staying at light heavyweight to defend his WBO 175-lb title against champions Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol. He’s not expected to do that though, because they would be more trouble than they’re worth for him.

Fans want Canelo to fight Beterbiev or Bivol

The hardcore boxing fans would love to see Canelo fight one or both of them. But when Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso claimed that Kovalev is better than Beterbiev, he made it transparently clear that the Mexican star WON’T be fighting him.

It’s safe to say that Canelo will NEVER fight Beterbiev or Bivol, because those guys are in their prime, and create a lot of problems for him.

“Saunders made it clear in fighter meetings: If he can’t get Canelo, he wants @BooBooAndrade. Andrade and Saunders were scheduled to meet for a middleweight belt last fall, before Saunders vacated his title following a failed drug test,” Mannix added.