De La Hoya: I'm Confident Canelo vs. Golovkin Will Happen!

By Edward Chaykovsky

Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya is very confident that a middleweight unification between WBC champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs) and IBO/WBA/IBF champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (34-0, 31KOs) will happen.

The World Boxing Council has ordered the two champions to face each other in the fall. They were allowed to take an interim-bout in the first half of the year.

Canelo will return on May 7th, against former champion Amir Khan at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Golovkin will defend his belts against undefeated IBF mandatory challenger Dominic Wade on April 23rd at The Forum in Los Angeles, California.

Despite the WBC's order, very few insiders expect the fight to come off -at least in 2016. Even De La Hoya, who promotes Canelo, will not specify an exact timeline for the fight.

If Khan gets the upset, there is a contract clause for an immediate rematch. If Canelo wins as many predict, De La Hoya says a Golovkin fight will happen at some point. In a recent interview, De La Hoya said the fight needed a lot more building.

If Canelo refuses to go forward with the WBC's order, then he will be stripped of the title and Golovkin will become the full champion. He captured the WBC's interim title in 2014 with a knockout of Mexico's Marco Antonio Rubio. That victory stamped him as the mandatory challenger to the WBC's title.  

“If Amir Khan beats Canelo, we’ll obviously do the rematch," De La Hoya told The Guardian. “I’m very confident [Canelo vs. Golovkin will happen]. I like Golovkin, he has a great style, he’s a real fighter and he has created a mystique that I love. It’s just a matter of time. Believe me it will happen very soon.”