By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin have a deal in place to fight on September 12, but they both have interim contests that need to be gotten out of the way first.
Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) is expected to meet WBO super middleweight Billy Joe Saunders in June, and GGG is defending his IBF middleweight strap against Kamil Szeremeta in the same month. U.S fans have not the slightest amount of interest in seeing Canelo fight Saunders, who has a negative style of fighting. Likewise, people don’t want to see GGG fight Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs).
Fans won’t complain if GGG and Canelo scrap their interim fights
There won’t be too much fuss from people if Canelo cancels his fight with Saunders, and Golovkin vacates his IBF 160-lb title to get rid of his IBF mandatory requirements against Szeremeta. If there wasn’t the virus situation that is likely to limit the activity for Canelo and GGG in 2020, then it wouldn’t be a big deal for them to take interim bouts.
That’s not how it is though. The coronavirus could limit Canelo and Golovkin to just ONE fight in 2020, and maybe not even that. If Canelo and GGG are only going to fight once this year, then it’s pointless for them to waste it on Saunders and Szeremeta.
Coronavirus could wipeout Canelo and GGG’s interim fights
The good news for fans is that there’s a better than average chance that Canelo and Golovkin’s interim fights in June will need to be postponed due to the out of control coronavirus pandemic that is spreading throughout the nation.
If things don’t get better in terms of controlling the virus in the next 3 months, it’s possible that Canelo and GGG’s interim fights may need to be postponed or CANCELED.
Since there’s already a deal for Canelo and Golovkin to fight in September, it would be a good idea for them to forget about their interim contests if they need to be postponed. The problem with them being postponed is that it could cause them to be moved to August or September, which means boxing fans wouldn’t see the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight in 2020. Instead, they’d see the much less interesting Canelo-Saunders and Golovkin-Szeremeta interim contests.
Alvarez, 29, is the favorite to beat Gennadiy, which it the first time in their three-fight rivalry that the Mexican star has been installed in that position. However, it doesn’t matter much whether Canelo is the favorite or not. If there’s quality judging working the third fight, we could see Golovkin beat Canelo.
Golovkin still with the upper hand against Canelo
Alvarez is technically up 1-0-1 against Golovkin after two fights, but in reality, it’s the opposite. Golovkin won the first fight with Canelo, and the second should have been a draw. In other words, Canelo, despite being 9 years younger than Golovkin, hasn’t proven to be better than him.
GGG has shown that he’s superior to Canelo. What Canelo has shown is that he’s hard to beat in Las Vegas when it comes to scoring.
GGG was on the receiving end of a HIGHLY questionable decision against Alvarez in their first fight in September 2017, a fight that fans saw as a robbery in Las Vegas. In their rematch a year later, Canelo beat Golovkin by close 12 round decision in September 2018. Again, this was another controversial outcome with the judges scoring it in a way that the boxing world disagreed with.
Golovkin has fought the better opposition
While some would say that Canelo has improved since his last fight against GGG, it’s hard to know if that’s the actual case. Canelo has a couple of soft fights against a shot Sergey Kovalev and Rocky Fielding, and he struggled to beat Daniel Jacobs. Canelo would have lost that fight if Jacobs wasn’t so timid in the first six rounds.
When Jacobs finally realized he had nothing to fear from Canelo, he took over the contest in the second half and dominated the action. Kovalev looked so badly over-the-hill that you can’t count that as a victory for Canelo. Likewise, Fielding resembled a non-contender, and definitely not a world champion. Why DAZN ever agreed to let Canelo fight Kovalev and Fielding is the big question.
Golovkin has had the bigger wins lately in defeating Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Steve Rolls since his controversial 12 round majority decision defeat to Alvarez in September 2018. Derevyanchenko is someone that might be good enough to Canelo, provided that he fought him in neutral territory with quality judging working the fight.
