Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya, has unsuccessfully attempted to try quell the fears of cynical fans that his fighter will attempt to stall or delay a clash with murderous punching fellow middleweight champion [WBA/IBF], Gennady Golovkin, only promising that the fight WILL happen at some stage.
After claiming the WBC middleweight strap, Alvarez told fans and assembled media that he was serious about the Golovkin fight and doesn’t ‘run from anybody,’ an assertion echoed by his promoter, although fan fears that the fight could still be some way off weren’t exactly quelled by a non-committal De La Hoya, who said he needs to weigh things up first before making any decisions.
“It’s gonna happen. It’s gonna happen. Don’t worry,” the Golden Boy CEO told fighthub.tv about making the sought-after clash, which is one of the biggest fights to be made in all of boxing.
“I can take a page out of my mentor’s book, Mr. Bob Arum [of Top Rank], and say, ‘Well you gotta let it marinate a bit.’ Or I can say, you know what, let’s go, let’s do it.”
‘Let’s do it’ is a philosophy that De La Hoya has been keen to expound, having not blinked an eye in throwing David Lemieux to Golovkin last month in what was the French-Canadian’s maiden defence of the IBF middleweight strap he won against Hassan N’Dam in June.
Yet he ostensibly appears not so keen on that ideology with his enormously popular – and not to mention financially lucrative – young Mexican star.
“Let me talk to my team, let me talk to Canelo, let me discuss how he’s feeling and — look, there’s fighters that go up in weight, conquer that division, and come back down, so we don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see. But, is he gonna fight Golovkin? Absolutely, absolutely.
Again, it boils down to the question from fans well aware of the business dynamics of boxing, of ‘when exactly will GGG/Canelo take place?’ While many won’t expect it next irrespective of GGG’s mandatory situation, it’s a fight that simply MUST take place within the next 12 months for the good of boxing and in accordance with Oscar’s own philosophy.
In addition, and despite his post-fight boasts, ‘Canelo’ made much in the build-up to the Cotto fight of not being a true 160 lb fighter – just like his WBC predecessor – winning the middleweight title below the sanctioned limit at a catch-weight, pouring cold water on the notion he will fight Golovkin at the right and proper middleweight limit of 160 lbs.
“We’re not saying GGG’s out of the question,” De La Hoya added. “We’re not saying that at all. We’re just saying that Canelo just had a good fight and we have to go — not go back to the drawing board – but just sit down and discuss it.”
Have Oscar and Alvarez inadvertently put the rope around their own necks regarding the avoided Kazakh? Will they really take this fight, even if they say they will and won’t vacate the newly won title? How long can they avoid GGG? How aggressively will the WBC pursue the issue of the fight?
We shall soon find out the answers to these questions. 2016 should be interesting.
Twitter @undilutedpoison