By Steve Kim

On Saturday night as Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez knocked out Amir Khan in the sixth round at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the immediate focus shifted to a showdown between the defending WBC middleweight champion and the IBF/WBA/IBO belt-holder, Gennady Golovkin.

The WBC has mandated that the two parties begin negotiations this upcoming week. Golovkin by virtue of his status as the WBC interim champion, is essentially the mandatory challenger( but with a much greater purse split than the traditional 75-25 margin).

After the fight, Alvarez had some strong words for Golovkin, who was in attendance and came into the ring afterwards.

Tom Loeffler, the managing director of K2 Promotions told BoxingScene.com - "He sounded pretty confident, he invited Gennady into the ring, personally. So he's certainly not afraid to confront Gennady and it was a tremendous performance. You have to give Khan credit for the speed and the heart that he showed and 'Canelo' showed the power - what a devastating knockout that was."

Alvarez stated that Mexican's don't 'f*** around' (in Spanish to HBO's Max Kellerman in the post-fight interview). Yes, that was a rather bold statement.

"Look, when you have a sold-out arena and you have the world watching, 'Canelo's a true champion he's a real middleweight champion, I don't think he's going to back down from anybody,''opined Loeffler, as he was taking care of media obligations for Golovkin, who was the center of attention on press row after the fight.

The official negotiation period for the WBC begins on Monday, but in the late hours on Saturday night, he stated - "I'm going to call Eric (Gomez, the Sr. V.P. of Golden Boy Promotions) tomorrow."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com