Loeffler discusses all the risks involved with Canelo not fighting GGG this year

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Gennady Golovkin,Saul Canelo Alvarez,As the promotion for Gennady Golovkin’s April 23rd title defense against Dominic Wade at the Forum in Inglewood, California heats up, we can’t help but consider the significance of the winner’s positioning. Most expect Gennady to walk away the winner and pretty much unscathed, but that doesn’t mean Wade should be taken lightly.

 

Wade is a talented fighter and he is determined.

 

If Wade can come away as the winner then he’ll be in prime position to challenge the winner of a fight taking place a couple weeks later on HBO PPV. That fight, of course, is between the WBC middleweight champion, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and up from two weight classes, Amir Khan.

 

Tom Loeffler, Golovkin’s promoter, is not trying to control things that he has no control over. Of course, he knows that despite the actual plans of Canelo or Khan before the end of the year, Gennady will be in a position to become the full WBC middleweight champion.

 

“That was all part of the agreement. The agreement is signed by all parties for the WBC, from the Golden Boy side, from our side and it wasn’t the first choice, but giving him the one voluntary defense against Khan builds [Canelo-Golovkin] into a bigger, but it also tightens up as far as the mandate. It’s a clear mandate. It’s a written mandate from the WBC, according to the WBC Rules, that the winner of Canelo vs. Khan has to fight the winner of Gennady vs. Wade. There’s really no wiggle room at that,” Loeffler told Nestor Gibbs of Thaboxingvoice.

 

Loeffler is fully aware of the fact that neither Canelo nor Khan can be forced to fight Golovkin, but that won’t prevent Golovkin from getting one step closer to his ultimate goal, which is complete and total control over every major title at 160lbs.

 

“You can’t force them to fight. If they chose to fight somebody else then it’s clear that the WBC will not recognize them as the champion anymore and Gennady, as the interim champion, will be recognized as the full champion.”

 

Canelo has stepped up huge in the past and faced off against the toughest competition boxing had to offer him. Fights with Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara have cemented Canelo’s reputation as a “take on all comers” type of fighter. But with every implication given, it would be difficult to defend Canelo if he chooses to relinquish the WBC title in favor of avoiding a fight with Golovkin.

 

Loeffler feels the way that many of us do and echoed everyone’s sentiments in the interview with Gibbs by calling Golovkin-Canelo the “biggest fight in boxing” today. He knows that Canelo could be backed into a corner and forced to take the fight or face the fan repercussion.

 

“I think there’s also going to be a lot of pressure from the fans, too. They want to see the best fights possible. Canelo’s proven that he’ll take risky fights for much less money than what he would get to fight Gennady.”