This past Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas - Canelo Alvarez knocked out Liam Smith and called out Gennady Golovkin.
Alvarez stopped Smith in the ninth round Saturday night after dropping him in the previous two rounds, winning the WBO light middleweight championship before a record crowd of 51,240 at AT&T Stadium.
The victory kept the 26-year-old Alvarez (48-1-1) on pace for a showdown with undefeated, unified middleweight champion Golovkin that is expected be held by September 2017, according to Alvarez promoter Oscar De La Hoya.
Golovkin is a 34-year-old based in Santa Monica, California and the Kazakhstan native has said he wants the fight as soon as possible. Signals have been mixed from the Alvarez camp whether he was waiting to better negotiating terms and location as well as wanting to spend more time training at a higher weight.
Alvarez had won a middleweight title but vacated it for this shot at the junior middleweight championship, sparking criticism that he was avoiding the hard-punching Golovkin.
Prior to their fight taking place, Smith had favored Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs) to beat Canelo is the two fighters ever stepped inside the ring. After getting knocked out by Canelo and feeling him out in the ring, Smith (23-1, 13KOs) still believes Golovkin is too big and would come out on top if the two boxers faced each other.
"No [I don't think Canelo will win], I think Triple G is too big for him. Canelo belongs here [at 154-pounds]," Smith said.
Canelo was due to return to the ring on December 10th, potentially at Madison Square Garden in New York City, but he revealed on Monday that a right hand injury suffering in the win over Smith will keep him out of the ring until the first quarter of 2017 at the earliest. More than likely he won't be back until Cinco De Mayo weekend in May.
