By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez’s lawsuit with DAZN promotions makes things potentially tricky for him to return to the ring against superstar Gennady Golovkin in 2021. Unless the litigation ends quickly, we may not see Canelo facing GGG next year.
The pandemic situation will make it impossible for the Mexican superstar Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) to fight Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) if it continues into 2021 without a vaccine being produced.
With the considerable money that Canelo vs. Golovkin III would bring in, they’re not going to want to give up all that revenue by fighting behind closed doors like other fighters have been doing this year.
Canelo vs. Golovkin 3 needs fans
While it would make a nice gesture for Canelo, 30, and GGG to do it for the fans by agreeing to fight in May 2021 behind closed doors, it’s not realistic to assume they’ll make that move.
Instead, they’ll wait until crowds are allowed back into sporting events in Nevada, which is likely destination for the third Canelo-Golovkin III clash.
In the latest news on that front, things might not return to normal in the U.S until late 2021. If crowds aren’t allowed back until late next year, then the third Canelo-GGG match could be moved to the fall of 2021 if then.
Besides Canelo needing his lawsuit to come to a speedy end before facing GGG, he also wants to make the fight.
Given that Canelo hasn’t fought Golovkin in two years since his 12 round majority decision victory on September 15, 2018, that suggests that he doesn’t want to fancy the idea of facing him.
It’s in Canelo’s best interest financially and with his reputation to fight GGG in a trilogy match to clear up the controversy of their first two fights, both of which ended in decisions that left boxing fans unhappy.
Canelo and Golovkin fought to a questionable 12 round draw in their first fight in 2017. Fans overwhelmingly saw Golovkin winning that fight. The battle took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, a venue that Canelo has frequently fought in since 2016.
It didn’t help Canelo that he chose the same location for the rematch with Golovkin, which reinforced the opinions of fans that he needs to fight in that place to win decisions.
In hindsight, Canelo probably made a mistake of choosing to fight in the same venue as the first fight with Golovkin, as he wasn’t given credit by a lot of boxing fans after be beat him. Canelo gassing out after six rounds also factored into the opinions of fans that he didn’t deserve his win over Golovkin.
Does Alvarez want to fight GGG again?
If Canelo doesn’t want to fight Golovkin again because of how difficult he perceives the fight will be, then he could choose to use the pandemic as a ruse for not fighting him in 2021.
You would assume that if Canelo were interested in fighting GGG again, he would have already done. When the Mexican star is intrigued by battling certain guys, he negotiates the fight quickly without hesitation. We saw that with Alvarez’s matches against Amir Khan, Rocky Fielding, Alfredo Angulo, and James Kirkland. Even though none of those guys were on Canelo’s level, he still didn’t hesitate to negotiate a fight against them.
Training routines 💥🥊 pic.twitter.com/DgiAexvWwh
— Gennadiy Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) September 3, 2020
It works in Canelo’s favor if he delays the Golovkin fight until 2022, as Golovkin will be 39 by then, and will likely be faded enough to be beaten finally without controversy.
Unfortunately, Canelo won’t receive the credit from fans for beating Golovkin at that point, but I don’t think he’ll lose sleep over that. It’ll make money, and Canelo will have another win over Golovkin, which should officially close the book in their competition.
It would be ridiculous for Canelo to continue to fight the aging Golovkin beyond that point, as he’ll have gotten too old to compete. At 38, Golovkin is starting to show his age, as we saw in his last fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko last October.
Golovkin took a great deal of punishment in beating the 2008 Olympian Derevyanchenko by a 12 round unanimous decision, and he looked nothing like the younger fighter he’d once been.
GGG is planning on making a defense of his IBF middleweight title against Kamil Szeremeta next, but there’s still no date or venue for that fight. It’s a match that boxing fans are not demanding, but it’ll give Golovkin an opponent to look good against.