Gennadiy Golovkin (40-1- 35 KOs) is hoping to get a trilogy fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez (53-1-1, 36 KOs) after getting the short end of the stick in their rematch last year in September 2018.
DAZN gave Canelo the ability to pick his opponents, and he may choose to finish out the remaining 8 fights he has on his contract without facing GGG a third time.
Is Canelo afraid of GGG?
Golovkin, DAZN and Matchroom Boxing all want the third fight with Canelo to take place in 2020, but it’s ultimately up to the Golden Boy star whether he’ll do it. Last year, Canelo signed an 11-fight, $365 million deal with DAZN, and it was assumed that a trilogy fight with GGG was a foregone conclusion. However, Canelo has resisted the idea of fighting GGG again, saying it’s ‘no challenge” to him, and that he’s no longer interested in fighting him.
According to Canelo, he thinks he’ll knockout him out this time. GGG was never hurt in his two fights with Canelo. It’s not that Canelo lacked the power to hurt Golovkin. He just didn’t have the stamina to take the fight to GGG for an extended period of time to hurt him, and that made their two fights hard for him.
Saul Alvarez says GGG trilogy must make “business sense”
Canelo has mentioned that he would potentially be interested in a third fight with GGG if it made good “business sense,” which suggests that he might want his existing $365 contract with DAZN to be sweetened with a bump for him to take that fight.
If Canelo chooses to insist on getting an increase, then it’ll be up to DAZN if they want to do that. If not, then we could see Canelo choosing to fight whoever he wants. He recently beat the weak link among the light heavyweight champion in Sergey Kovalev last November. The fight was ugly to watch with a lot of boxing fans crying ‘fix’ afterwards.
It’s a strange thing for Canelo to given that the boxing world believed that he should have lost the first fight with GGG, and he squeaked by with a close 12 round decision win in their rematch.
Since signing his 11-fight deal with DAZN, Canelo has fought the following fighters:
- Rocky Fielding
- Daniel Jacobs
- Sergey Kovalev
Canelo, 29, just barely edged his rematch with Golovkin in winning a narrow 12 round majority decision. The scores were 115-113, 115-113, 114-114. Like in their first fight in 2017, the fight was razor close, but this time the judges had Canelo the winner. In their first fight, it was scored a draw, but the overall opinion by fans is Golovkin deserved the nod by an 8 rounds to 4 score.
Canelo likely to finish DAZN contract with these opponents
As far as the remaining 8 fights that Canelo will have on his contract after 2020, it’s likely he’ll face these guys:
- Daniel Jacobs – rematch
- Demetrius Andrade
- Jaime Munguia
- Chris Eubank Jr.
- Sergey Derevyanchenko
- John Ryder
- Callum Smith
- Billy Joe Saunders
If Canelo chooses not to fight Golovkin in 2020, the Mexican star will likely move down to 168 and fight these two champions: Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders.
Dmitry Bivol might have a chance of replacing one of the six from that list, but this writer highly doubts it. Bivol has the kind of talent that would give Canelo problems, and it’s unlikely he would ever agree to fight him. Bivol is capable of moving down to 168, and he would take a fight with Canelo in a second if there was interest on his part.