Hey Canelo Alvarez, someone is looking for you.
WBA Super, IBF and WBC interim middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) wants to unify the middleweight titles—and he won’t stop calling out the other 160-pound champions until he reaches his goal.
Golovkin has already extended an offer to face WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders, but Saunders is reportedly unhappy with the terms. There’s already an order in place for Golovkin to face Tureano Johnson should Saunders turn his back on the unification bout. But that doesn’t appear to be enough for Golovkin.
Johnson is a rugged fighter and former Olympian (2008 Beijing), but he doesn’t have the type of notoriety that would generate the pay-per-view revenue Golovkin covets. Johnson also isn’t a world champion, which means the potential fight isn’t likely to check any of the boxes that sit high on Golovkin’s list of priorities.
Canelo just received his physical WBC belt after defeating Miguel Cotto for the title in November 2015, and he’s arguably the biggest name in the sport. On his behalf, the WBC released a statement via social media saying:
“@Canelo wants to fight everyone, he wants to fight GGG. That fight will be seen by everybody. It will happen.”
Golovkin replied to the message with this short but to the point question/challenge:
“Then let’s do this @Canelo why wait?”
Per BoxRec, Canelo has a date (May 7) and a venue (MGM Grand Garden) for his next bout, but there is no opponent listed. The date for Golovkin’s next fight is set for April 23, but there is no venue or opponent named.
Obviously, most of the aforementioned details are subject to change, but the two fighters have bouts scheduled close enough together that if a sense of urgency was created to make the unification bout happen, it shouldn’t take much of an adjustment from a scheduling standpoint.
Perhaps the more likely events would be for Canelo to face a fighter such as Willie Monroe or Gabriel Rosado, as rumored by The Ring magazine in May, and for Golovkin to battle Johnson in April.
If both Canelo and Golovkin win—as expected—a unification bout between the two could take place sometime in the fall. There are more ifs than definites at this point, but this figures to be the hottest story to follow in the sport throughout 2016.
This article was penned by the author who is not related to the WBA and the statements, expressions or opinions referenced herein are that of the author alone and not the WBA.
