Golovkin ready to fight Canelo in the fall

DAZN reportedly contacted Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin to see if he would fight Canelo Alvarez in the fall. Golovkin says he’s “ready” to fight Canelo, according to Lance Pugmire.

With that said, the Kazakstan fighter Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) isn’t sure if there’s true interest on Canelo’s part in fighting him in a trilogy or if he’s being used as a pawn for him to get a better deal in negotiations with Caleb Plant.

Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) and his promoter Eddie Hearn is trying to negotiate a deal with IBF super middleweight champion ‘Sweet Hands’ Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) for September 11th or 18th.

Hearn said that he was giving Team Plant one week to agree to a deal, or he and Canelo will need to go in another direction towards possibly a fight with one of the 175-lb champions.

Hearn mentioned Golovkin as being one of the options for Canelo’s September fight and 175-lb champions Artur Beterbiev and Dimitry Bivol.

What makes it difficult to believe that Canelo has any serious interest in fighting IBF middleweight champion Golovkin is that he’s ignored him for the last three years since 2018.

Canelo has wanted no part in fighting GGG a third time, even though both of their first two fights were close enough to go his way. Indeed, many boxing fans believe Golovkin was robbed badly in his first fight with Canelo, and they also felt that he deserved a victory or, at worst, a draw in the second fight.

With Canelo choosing not to fight Golovkin for the past three years, it gives the appearance that he was waiting him out until he was too old to win. Golovkin is now 39-years-old, and likely not the fighter that gave Canelo fits in their two fights.

“@DAZNBoxing recently reached out to @GGGBoxing to enquire about his availability for a fall fight against @Canelo, and the Golovkin response was that he’s “ready, willing and available,” said Lance Pugmire at @PugBoxing.

“Official tells me the @GGGBoxing side has no idea if this is leveraging in the @Canelo @SweetHandsPlant talks, just a check on his fight status or a nearing trilogy bout. I’m told he will likely not fight @BooBooAndrade before his planned Dec. 31 bout against Murata in Japan,” said Pugmire.

Golovkin is likely being used for leveraging purposes by Canelo to get Caleb Plant to move down from his $10 million+ asking price for their September fight.

If Golovkin, you need to look at the last three years as a signal that Canelo has zero interest in fighting him ever again.

If Canelo did want to face GGG a third time, he would have done it already. He wouldn’t have waited until Golovkin turned 39, knowing if he did that, he wouldn’t get credit from boxing fans for fighting him.

Golovkin had the boxing public on his side three years ago, wanting Canelo to fight him a third time. However, the way GGG has stepped away from fighting quality opposition since 2018, he’s arguably lost fans.

Instead of continuing to face high-level opposition to keep himself relevant, Golovkin has chosen to fight lesser guys, seemingly keeping himself in a holding pattern, waiting for Canelo to give him the trilogy match that he so badly wants.

Golovkin’s opposition since 2018:

• Steve Rolls
• Kamil Szeremeta
• Sergiy Derevyanchenko

Those are not the cutting-edge opposition Golovkin needed to fight to keep the pressure on Canelo to fight him.

It’s unclear whether Golovkin assumed that with him and Canelo, both with DAZN, they would put the needed pressure on the Mexican star to fight him again.

If that was GGG’s thinking, he was wrong. Canelo chose not to fight him, and it’s hard to believe that he’ll do so now.