By Edward Chaykovsky

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya says it won't take six years to make a fight between his company superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs) and feared IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs).

Canelo vs. Golovkin is one of the biggest fights to make in boxing and arguably the biggest fight to make in the United States.

The winner of last year's fight between Canelo and Miguel Cotto was due to face Golovkin. The fight never happened after Canelo won, as he requested an extension from the World Boxing Council.

Canelo did his voluntary in May, when he knocked out Amir Khan, and was due to face Golovkin next month. That plan fell out when Canelo vacated his WBC middleweight title and later announce that he was moving down to 154-pounds to challenge WBO world champion Liam Smith on September 17th.

There is a verbal agreement for Golovkin and Canelo to fight in September 2017, but a verbal agreement is NOT enforceable.

De La Hoya says the critics should calm down because the fight will eventually happen at some point in the future - just not right now, because he feels Canelo is not a legit middleweight and needs to build his body up for a fight with Golovkin.

“People were talking about Pacquiao-Mayweather for six, seven, eight years. People have just begun to talk about Golovkin-Canelo a little under a year ago,” De La Hoya said to International Business Times.

“Canelo is a fighter who fights all comers. There’s not one challenge that he has shied away from. It’s just a matter of timing. Canelo’s not a full-blown middleweight yet, and if you’re gonna fight the very best middleweight out there, you have to do it at the right time and get the experience in that particular weight class. Canelo’s gonna fight him sooner than later, and it’s not gonna take six or seven years, but we’re looking to make that fight very soon.”

“Liam Smith is a world champion at 154 pounds. I’ve always felt that Canelo Alvarez is a junior middleweight. He’s not a middleweight yet. If you take a look at the Cotto fight, they fought at 155 for the middleweight title, but the only reason why the fight took place at that weight is because Canelo wanted to fight Cotto. Canelo can make the weight easy at 154, and so therefore he’s challenging the best champion at 154 in Liam Smith. And Liam Smith is no pushover.”