Canelo Alvarez interested in Gennadiy Golovkin trilogy in September

By Boxing News - 02/19/2020 - Comments

By Kenneth Friedman:  Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin could be meeting up in their long-awaited trilogy fight in September. @MikeCoppinger revealed the info on the possibility of the four-division world champion Canelo Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) and IBF middleweight champion Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) potentially fighting in September.

The first Canelo-Golovkin fight was scored a controversial 12 round draw in September 2017. In their rematch a year later, Canelo won a close 12 round majority decision in September 2018. Both fights took place at the same venue at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Canelo suddenly showing interest in GGG trilogy fight

After more than a year of showing no interest in facing GGG, Canelo suddenly is interested in that fight. Golovkin, who will be turning 38-years-old on April 8, will likely need to come up in weight to 168 for that fight to happen. Canelo is fighting at super-middleweight now and is comfortable in that division.

It’s quite possible that Canelo’s struggles at attempting to find an opponent for his next fight on May 2 have convinced him that it’s a good idea to face Golovkin again. Unfortunately for Canelo, there just aren’t a lot of great options for him at 160, 168 and 175. There are great fights for Canelo, but they come with a lot of risks involved.

These are some of the risky fights for Canelo:

  • Artur Beterbiev
  • Dmitry Bivol
  • Oleksandr Gvozdyk
  • Jermall Charlo
  • Demetrius Andrade
  • David Benavidez
  • Caleb Plant
  • Jermell Charlo
  • Callum Smith
  • Jean Pascal

It’s possible that Canelo could win some of those fights, but not all of them. There’s a chance that Canelo would lose to the better part of half of those fighters based on how he performed in his last two fights against Sergey Kovalev and Danny Jacobs.

Canelo-GGG trilogy will make DAZN happy

DAZN has wanted the trilogy match since signing the superstar Canelo to an 11-fight, $365 million deal in 2018. Thus far, Canelo has used up 3 of his 11 fights, beating Rocky Fielding, Danny Jacobs, and Sergey Kovalev. Although the interest from fans was high for Canelo’s fights against Jacobs and Kovalev, it wasn’t to the extent that it would be if Golovkin was his opponent. DAZN will bring in a lot of new subscribers in the third fight between Canelo and Golovkin.

In the meantime, Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy are trying to bang out a deal for a May 2 unification fight against WBO 168-lb champion Billy Joe Saunders.  The fight still isn’t a done deal though, as Saunders, 30, reportedly wants a higher minimum guarantee for the fight. Jamie Conlan of MTK Global is optimistic

“Both fighters want it, both camps want it, everyone seems to be on the same side, we just have to hit the right number,” said Conlan to skysports.com on the Canelo vs. Saunders fight.

WBA Super World super-middleweight champion Callum Smith was originally one of the two leading frontrunners for the Canelo fight, but he’s fallen out reportedly over the money. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya has other options in case they’re unable to make a deal with Saunders to be the guy that fights Alvarez.

Canelo needs an opponent fast for his May 2 fight

Golden Boy and Canelo are quickly running out of time to sign someone for his fight on DAZN for the 2nd of May. They need to get the deal done ASAP so that the promotion of the fight can begin. If it’s going to be Saunders that Canelo faces, the marketing of the fight will need a lot more work than in the Mexican star’s two previous fights.

Saunders has only fought in North America once and that was his last fight against Marcelo Esteban Coceres on November 9 in Los Angeles, California. Let’s put it this way. It wasn’t a memorable performance by Billy Joe. Coceres came from nowhere to batter Saunders and beat him at every turn.

Saunders grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat in the 11th round when he dropped Coceres three times to win by a knockout. It was a great ending for Saunders, but the fact remains that he looked like an average fighter in the front of the American fans through the majority of the contest.

Some boxing fans believe that Saunders is starting to show the ravages of ring-wear after 11 years as a professional. But a more likely rationale for Saunders’ deteriorating performances is the years of inactivity in which he’s been plagued by injuries, and has fought only on a part-time basis.

GGG defending against Szeremeta in April

Golovkin is still negotiating a title defense against his IBF mandatory Kamil Szeremeta. The two were supposed to fight in February, then March and now April 11. It would be a risk for the GGG vs. Szeremeta fight to be moved to May or June, considering that would make it difficult – but not impossible – for Golovkin to fight Canelo in September. Golovkin’s fight against Szeremeta could take place in Kazakhstan.

This would be the first defense for GGG for his IBF 160-lb belt that he won last October in a grueling 12 round unanimous decision win over Sergiy Derevyanchenkin in New York. Derevyanchenko was originally Canelo’s IBF mandatory, but when his team was unable to negotiate a deal in time, he lost the belt. Golovkin then took advantage of that to win a hard-fought decision over Derevyanchenko. GGG didn’t fight up to his normal standards against the Ukrainian.

Golovkin almost lost to Derevyanchenko

While some boxing fans believe that Golovkin struggled because of his age, it was perhaps more of a case of Derevyanchenko coming in with a better game plan. Dererevyanchenko threw a lot of shots in the fight and took advantage of GGG’s low work-rate. Also, Derevyanchenko attacked Golovkin’s body like no fighter has done before, and hurt him.

Canelo threw a lot of body shots in his rematch with GGG in September 2018, but not to the same level that Derevyanchenko did. He was hitting Golovkin with body shots all night long. However, Derevyanchenko paid the price for going to the body in taking a lot of headshots that cut him and had both eyes badly swollen at the end of the contest.