By Steve Kim

There had been some talk coming into this past weekend's rematch between Gennady Golovkin and Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, of Golovkin returning in mid-Decmber. But given the result of that hard-fought contest and the physical nature of it, those plans will most likely be shelved.

"Going 12 hard rounds and getting cut in the 12th round from a head-butt, I would say at this point most likely not (fight anymore in 2018). It'll take about a week just to decompress and go over everything with Abel (Sanchez) and Gennady," said Tom Loeffler of GGG Promotions to BoxingScene.com.

"But my gut feeling is right now he won't fight before the end of the year and we'll and weigh the options for the spring time or for May of 2019," continued Loeffler, who then joked, "Floyd (Mayweather) looks like he's going to be active again, so we can fight the winner of Mayweather-(Manny) Pacquiao."

Sanchez told BoxingScene over the weekend, that he too would like his fighter to rest up for the next few months - and then face Canelo in a trilogy fight on Cinco De Mayo weekend, in May of 2019. 

Canelo, who also suffered a cut during the win, is likely not fighting again until next year.

On Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) suffered the first defeat of his pro career - when Canelo secured a twelve round majority decision to capture GGG's WBC, WBA, IBO middleweight titles. The close nature of the fight saw very tight scorecards - with 114-114 for the draw and two cards of 115-113 for Canelo.

The first bout, which took place at the same Las Vegas venue in September 2017, saw Golovkin and Canelo battle to a controversial twelve round split draw.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.