Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin Agree to have interim bouts before They’re fall Clash
The camps for middleweight world champion Canelo Alvarez and unified titleholder Gennady Golovkin cleared an important hurdle Sunday night on their way to making what figures to be the biggest fight in boxing, barring a rematch between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Eric Gomez of Alvarez promoter, Golden Boy Promotions and Tom Loeffler of Golovkin promoter K2, met with WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman and agreed that both fighters would be allowed to have interim bouts before an expected fight against each other in September.
Alvarez won the lineal world title and WBC belt from Miguel Cotto on Nov. 21 in their megafight in Las Vegas. With the victory, Alvarez inherited a mandatory defense obligation against Golovkin because, besides his two sanctioning body titles, GGG also holds the WBC’s interim belt.
Sulaiman, who has been doing everything he can to help facilitate a deal, extended the deadline to Monday. On Monday, Sulaiman announced that Alvarez and Golovkin would be allowed the interim bouts “so as to maximize the interest in their highly anticipated showdown.”
Loeffler told ESPN.com that Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs), 33, a native of Kazakhstan, who lives in Los Angeles, is penciled in to fight in March or April on HBO against an opponent to be determined.
Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs), 25, is due to fight an opponent to be determined on HBO PPV on May 7, which is Cinco de Mayo weekend, a big deal for Mexico’s biggest boxing star.
Following the interim bouts but before May 31, the WBC will give the sides 15 days to make a deal for the fall fight, assuming both win the interim bouts. If they do not make a deal, the WBC will order a purse bid.
With the retirement of Floyd Mayweather and the imminent departure of Manny Pacquiao, Alvarez is the new face of boxing after his very strong performance in a decision victory against Miguel Cotto on Nov. 21 to win the middleweight world title in the year’s most anticipated fight other than Mayweather-Pacquiao. Unlike that fight, Alvarez-Cotto delivered fans a quality HBO PPV main event that added another chapter to the rich history of the Mexico-Puerto Rico rivalry. Alvarez is due back to fight on Cinco de Mayo weekend on HBO PPV in an interim bout before an expected September showdown against fearsome Gennady Golovkin (34-0) — the biggest fight that can be made in boxing, barring a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao rematch.
Next: May 7 vs. TBA
