By Barry Holbrook: The next fight for Gennadiy Golovkin could be against Canelo Alvarez on September 12 rather than Kamil Szeremeta due to the coronavirus situation. IBF middleweight champion Golovkin is rumored to be defending against his mandatory Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs) on June 6 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
That fight is on the firing line of the coronavirus pandemic, which could lead to a postponement. Likewise, Canelo and Billy Joe Saunders could happen in June. The fight hasn’t announced yet, and it. Even if it does get announced, the circumstances with the coronavirus could lead to the fight being postponed. If Canelo’s fight is postponed, he could opt to go straight to the GGG fight on September 12.
Canelo vs. Saunders could be moved to December
“What’s going to happen to Canelo and Billy Joe Saunders?” asked Lance Pugmire on the Pug and Copp Boxing Show. “Canelo has talked about wanting to fight in December of this year. So you would think there’s no way in the world that they would have Canelo risk fighting Saunders in early June if that’s as early as they can get to it, and then having him go right back into a training camp less than a week later to get ready for GGG.
Maybe the opportunity is to maybe push Saunders back to December or even. Could you go Saunders in September and then GGG. That doesn’t seem to make sense, and that wasn’t mentioned by anyone I spoke to, because the September fight date being around the Mexican weekend is a farm more popular weekend to stage boxing matches.”
It’s a lot better for boxing fans if the Canelo vs. Saunders fight gets moved to December rather than the Canelo-GGG contest. That fight deserves to be on September 12 where it’ll get a lot more attention from fans due to it being on the Mexican holiday weekend.
Saunders and his promoter Eddie Hearn will likely resist the idea of having their fight moved to later this year. They would obviously like the idea of taking the fight with Canelo on September 12 because that would give them more visibility.
The 800 lb Gorilla is the coronavirus lurking out there, ready to foul up the Canelo vs. Saunders fight for June, July or August. If it takes the U.S four months to get control over the coronavirus, then Canelo may end up fighting Saunders later this year. GGG and the boxing world would be out of luck.
Saunders could foul up Canelo vs. GGG trilogy for September
“Canelo and GGG have an agreement to fight. That was part of the holdup,” said Mike Coppinger on the Pug and Copp Boxing Show. “I’ve heard there’s been some discussions to go straight to the Canelo-GGG fight if this [coronavirus] drags on too long. I don’t know how that’ll work out contractually.
“And I heard that’s something that’s been discussed. I don’t know how seriously. I know, for example, Billy Joe Saunders has a rematch clause if he happens to upset Canelo. How would then upset the GGG fight if they do fight and Saunders wins? It’s encouraging that we’re close to seeing that trilogy fight that we all want to see for years now.
“I think if we’re going to see Canelo-Saunders first, and the expectations are right now that we will if you can go in June, great. Even if you can go in July, you can move Canelo-GGG, which is tentatively aimed at September 12th at AT&T Stadium the home of the Dallas Cowboys, you could push that out to October at that point, and have July. If we start going Canelo-Saunders past July, even if you got to August, you could go Canelo-GGG in December.”
That would be a BIG upset in more ways than one if Saunders beats Canelo because it would trap the Mexican star in a rematch and send the GGG fight into next year.
