By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – If you’d like an idea of just how difficult the negotiations will be for a Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin fight, assuming those talks ever begin, you need not look any further than Alvarez’s perspective on owning the WBC middleweight title.
In addition to stating that Golovkin will need to make concessions to make their highly anticipated fight a reality, Alvarez all but said the fight won’t happen at or even near the middleweight limit of 160 pounds, Golovkin’s preferred weight.
Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) will defend the WBC middleweight title he won from Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) against former junior welterweight champion Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) on May 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (HBO Pay-Per-View).
The maximum contract weight for the Cotto fight November 21 in Las Vegas was 155 pounds, the same as it is for the Alvarez-Khan fight.
“I’m not a middleweight,” Alvarez told a group of reporters recently. “I’m a super welterweight. That’s my weight class. However, I wanted to fight this fight [against Khan] for some sort of title.”
The 34-year-old Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs), who knocked out overmatched Dominic Wade (18-1, 12 KOs) in the second round of their middleweight title fight Saturday night in Inglewood, California, has not weighed in at less than 158½ pounds for any of his 35 fights since the Kazakhstan native made his pro debut in May 2006. The 25-year-old Alvarez hasn’t weighed in at more than 155 pounds for any of the 48 fights he has had during his 10½-year pro career.
“We’ve said it along, and that’s the misconception,” Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions’ vice president, said regarding Alvarez not being a true middleweight. “He’s a super welterweight. The only reason he became the middleweight champion is because he wanted to fight Miguel Cotto. Miguel Cotto put the conditions [in place], as the champion, and that’s the reason. And [Alvarez] won the title.”
Alvarez obviously could give up the WBC middleweight title and continue fighting at 154 pounds, a weight he says he still has no issues making. He has instead followed Cotto’s controversial lead and opted to defend the 160-pound championship at 155 pounds.
That has opened up the Mexican superstar to constant criticism, but Alvarez hasn’t allowed heavy scrutiny of his WBC middleweight championship reign to adversely affect him.
“There’s always gonna be critics,” said Alvarez, who emphasized several times that his fight against Golovkin eventually will happen. “They say one thing and then they change their mind, and they say another thing. There’s always gonna be critics. But that means that you’re succeeding, when there’s critics.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.