By Miguel Rivera
Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs) has laughed off any claims that he ran from the middleweight division to avoid a fight with WBC/WBA/IBO/IBF champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs).
At the start of the year, Canelo was the WBC middleweight champion and he was ordered to make a mandatory defense against Golovkin.
He was allowed a single interim-fight, which he took, and knocked out Amir Khan in six rounds back in May at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Not long after the knockout of Khan, Canelo vacated the middleweight belt and the sanctioning body made Golovkin their champion.
Canelo has since announced his return to the junior middleweight division, and challenges WBO world champion Liam Smith on September 17th at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Golovkin will return to the ring a week earlier, facing IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook at the O2 Arena in London.
Canelo says the fight will happen down the line. Their teams have a verbal agreement to stage a fight in September of 2017. Canelo is potentially going to fight in the middleweight division at the end of year, with WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders being rumored as a potential opponent.
"In my entire career, I have never run away from anyone - including him. A lot of people make him out to be the best and that's clearly not the case - he hasn't fought anybody. Who has he knocked out? Who are they? That fight is eventually going to happen," Canelo told ESPN Deportes.
"When the time is right the fight will happen with him, but we are going to make it clear that I am not going to give away advantages to anyone. I always gave away advantages in my career, and I will not give them away anymore."