Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin have verbally agreed to fight, but the marauding middleweight pair’s highly-anticipated bout won’t take place until the fall of next year.
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Sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports on Wednesday that Alvarez and Golovkin will meet in September 2017.
Golden Boy Promotions, which is run by former world champion boxer Oscar de la Hoya and represents Alvarez, and K2 Promotions, which represents Golovkin and is led by Tom Loeffler, agreed to terms on the fight.
Weight was one of the principle reasons this fight was held up for so long, as Golovkin’s trainer once called Canelo a “diva” for not agreeing to fight at the middleweight limit. Lance Pugmire was the first to confirm the news, while ESPN’s Dan Rafael reported that the fight would be contested at the regular 160-pound limit, and not a 155-pound catchweight that Canelo has become so accustomed to. “Regarding the opponent, what I can tell you is that the weekend I will see Tom Loeffler in NY and then we will see”. When that did not happen they were hopeful Alvarez and Golden Boy would agree to the bout for September 17, the date on which Alvarez plans to fight next. “We wanted the fight in [this past] May”. “We can’t force people to get in the ring with Gennady”.
Golden Boy is said to have preferred to delay the fight in an effort to make it bigger commercially as well as give Alvarez some more time to fully acclimate to 160lbs.
Even with the plan for Alvarez and Golovkin to fight in late 2017, they still need to work out the financial details and myriad other aspects of a big fight. “It’s already boiling. But I don’t know if [the fight was hurt] by Canelo’s decision to vacate”.
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“They made it clear they want to build it up for next year”, Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler told the LA Times. Earlier this year, the World Boxing Council ordered Canelo (47-1-1, 33KOs) to face Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs), the mandatory challenger, in the fall. If that fight comes together as expected, Golovkin is reportedly willing to travel to England to take the assignment.
