From a dud comes an explosion of an announcement: GGG-Canelo is official at last!
Though yesterday’s heavily hyped “Battle of Mexico” showdown between Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Junior failed to deliver the great fight we were hoping for – the one-sided nature of Canelo’s performance and the perceived poor effort of Chavez Jr. forcing the fans in attendance to boo frequently – fans did not leave the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas totally unhappy.
Why? Because, finally, the fight the whole world has been waiting for for many months was announced as official last night: Canelo will face world middleweight king Gennady Golovkin in September of this year – as promised. The site and other details remain to be confirmed, but Oscar De La Hoya enjoyed his “I told you so” moment, and rightly so.
“I told you it was going to happen in 2017. I told you,” Oscar said as quoted by RingTV.com.
These two stars looked headed towards a superfight with one another, then it looked as though the deal would not be made, and now we can all sigh a sigh of relief – and get extremely excited about September 16. De La Hoya explained how he had the fight all sewn up a while back, but could not officially announce the fight until Canelo had beaten Chavez Jr. – which he did, handily; even effortlessly.
Now the hype will begin anew, and GGG Vs. Canelo promises to deliver where last night’s fight did not. Who wins? It’s way too early to say, but judging by the respective performances of both stars: Canelo shutting-out Chavez and GGG scraping past a determined Danny Jacobs, Canelo might head into the fight as a slight favourite.
He wasn’t really tested last night, but from what we did see, Canelo looked great at 164.5 pounds and there is no reason to think the 26 year old will be overpowered or over-matched physically at 160, where he will presumably face GGG (unless there is a surprise in store in the form of a catch-weight).
But where will the supefight take place?
“I had a missed call from Dubai,” De La Hoya said. “I had a missed call from the UK. There is interest all over the world. And those talks will start …..very soon because the fight is September 16.”
Could GGG-Canelo go overseas, or will Vegas or Texas win the big one in the end? Money will talk, and this fight will generate an absolute ton of it.
GGG was a ringsider last night, clad in a snappy suit, and both he and Canelo, and Oscar, were all smiles at the announcement of the mega-fight.
So too were the fans, who had a reason to smile, and forget the dud that was Canelo-Chavez Jr.
