By Edward Chaykovsky
Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach is backing Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez's decision to vacate the WBC middleweight championship.
The World Boxing Council had ordered Canelo (47-1-1, 33KOs) to make a mandatory defense against IBO/WBA/IBF/WBC middleweight world champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs).
With the WBC's purse bid deadline rapidly approaching, Canelo decided to drop his title last week.
Roach, who trained Miguel Cotto for his fight with Canelo last November, says the risk is not worth the reward.
He feels there is not enough money in a Golovkin fight - but one day there will be. Roach is likely pointing to Golovkin's pay-per-view debut last October against David Lemieux, which only hit around 150,000 buys - and then Canelo hit 900,000 a few months later against Cotto. Canelo's recent pay-per-view on May 7th, against massive underdog Amir Khan, hit around 500K buys.
Fans have been attacking Canelo at every turn, demanding he face Golovkin in the fall. If anyone is to blame, Roach says it's Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya, who the veteran coach believes pulled the trigger on going in the direction of vacating the WBC title.
“They’re all blaming Canelo, but look, fighters aren’t scared,” Roach said to Yahoo Sports. “It’s a business decision by his promoter. I don’t know why the blame went to the kid.”
“Why fight the toughest guy for no money? I think Triple-G is the best pound-for-pound guy out there right now. I rate him very highly. But he’s not that kind of a draw yet. Eventually, he will be, but that fight is going to just get bigger.”
