By Rick Reeno
Respected trainer Robert Garcia believes IBO/WBA/IBF middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs) should bite the bullet and agree to face Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs), who holds the WBC middleweight title, at a catch-weight of 155-pounds.
Golovkin, who holds the WBC's interim title at 160, is Canelo's mandatory challenger.
Canelo will defend his title on Saturday night against Amir Khan (31-3, 19KOs) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The World Boxing Council sanctioned this fight on the promise of the winner facing Golovkin in the fall.
The immediate obstacle in making Canelo-Golovkin a reality is not the money - it's the weight.
Canelo is demanding a catch-weight of 155-pounds. Golovkin will not agree to a catch-weight. He wants the full middleweight limit of 160.
The Mexican star has fought at 155 - one pound above junior middleweight - for his last four outings. He's standing firm on the belief that he's not a 'real middleweight' and refuses to give Golovkin any advantages - which includes a 160 weight limit.
Golovkin is standing his ground on a 'no catch-weight' mentality - unless Floyd Mayweather Jr. comes to the table. The slugger from Kazakhstan calls Mayweather his dream opponent. He says for Mayweather, and only for Mayweather, he'd be willing to drop down to as low as 154-pounds.
If he's willing to fight Mayweather at 154, Garcia believes he should absolutely fight Canelo at 155.
As the mandatory challenger, Golovkin is under no obligation to fight Canelo at 160. If Canelo wins on Saturday, and then refuses to satisfy his mandatory, then he will be stripped and Golovkin will become the full champion. On the other hand, Golovkin will gain the WBC title but he'll also lose the opportunity to make the biggest payday of his career, by far, against Canelo.
"How come he won't go to 155 for Canelo? Canelo is not going to fight him [at 160]. He is going to get the title, but he's not fighting Canelo and making $10 million dollars. That's a lot of money. So if he's willing to do it for Mayweather, then why won't he do it for Canelo? He's going to make a lot of money [against Canelo], a lot of money," Garcia told BoxingScene.com.
Garcia, a former world champion himself, does not agree with fighters making catch-weight requests - but also says Canelo is now the biggest money-maker in the sport and wields the power to make such demands.
"You shouldn't do that [demanding a catch-weight as champion], but [Canelo] calls the shots. He's got the power. He can do whatever he wants....like Pacquiao was doing, like Mayweather was doing, Cotto was doing it, and now Canelo can do it too," Garcia explained.
"Now it's all business, all money. We always wanted to defend out titles with pride. We wanted to become champions. Now fighters don't even want to become champions because they don't want to pay that percentage to the sanctioning body."