by David P. Greisman
The fight between Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez would have been a significant event just for what it represented, never mind for its ramifications. But the possibility of what could come next only added to the allure of what was to come first.
There was hope that the winner of Cotto vs. Alvarez would go on to face Gennady Golovkin. And fortunately there was more than just that hope. There also was a mandate.
The mandate went beyond the sentiment of boxing fans. It came from the sanctioning body that bestowed the world title Cotto held and for which Alvarez was vying. The mandate said that Cotto had postponed the prospect of facing Golovkin for long enough. He’d pushed it off and was willing to pay for the privilege, an investment that let him keep the World Boxing Council belt and set up the fight with Alvarez. The WBC obliged. If Golovkin was willing to take the money to wait, then the WBC could get a fight it wanted and collect six figures in fees from the fighters involved, then potentially collect even more were the winner to go on to face “GGG.”
After all, Cotto vs. Alvarez was the second biggest fight of the year, behind only Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao in terms of the stars involved and the anticipation ahead of it. Cotto was the most popular and most accomplished Puerto Rican fighter since the beloved Felix Trinidad. Alvarez had become an icon among Mexican boxing fans and those of Mexican heritage.
Cotto had won world titles at 140, 147 and 154 before capturing the true middleweight championship from Sergio Martinez, a championship with lineage among the best of the 160-pound division dating back to the night Bernard Hopkins bested Trinidad in 2001. Alvarez was a former titleholder at 154 pounds who was naturally larger than Cotto, was not damaged goods like Martinez had become, and was better than the other foes who’d fallen to Cotto in the past couple of years.
Alvarez, at 25 years old, had already been pro for a decade while Cotto, 35, was nearing the 15th anniversary of his debut. Alvarez actually had a couple more pro fights than Cotto — he was 45-1-1 with 32 knockouts while Cotto was 40-4 with 33 KOs — but Cotto had fought at a higher level for much longer. Beyond all of that, both had fan-friendly styles. There was plenty to be excited about.
Golovkin didn’t merely factor into the equation. His presence added to the sum value.
He had become a star, even if he wasn’t yet as big a star as Cotto or Alvarez. He had become a star even though the other top middleweights hadn’t been willing to face him. He had knocked out 20 straight opponents before another titleholder, David Lemieux, stepped up and stepped in with Golovkin, only to become knockout victim number 21. He packed Madison Square Garden in New York City and he packed venues thousands of miles away in Southern California.
He is seen as the best fighter at 160. It’s rare that the lineal champion isn’t also the best fighter, but that was the case at middleweight — and that was one more reason why people wanted to see the winner of Cotto vs. Alvarez face Golovkin.
Golovkin’s team might not care as much about the lineage so long as there is the knowledge that he truly sits atop the division. But sitting atop also means standing alone, and one way his team wanted to accomplish that is to collect the various world titles. Cotto had one, and so Golovkin petitioned the WBC to be allowed to fight for one of its lesser baubles. In this case, that lesser bauble meant a lot. It meant, with his win over Marco Antonio Rubio in October 2014, that Golovkin was someone Cotto would have to face or else. If Cotto didn’t, then the belt would belong to Golovkin.
It’s rare that a sanctioning body allows a titleholder from a different organization to be in such a position. But the WBC has now done this twice in the past year or so for major fights, first to try to help make a fight happen between light heavyweights Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev, and then for Cotto against Golovkin, who had one other major world title at the time and now, with the win over Lemieux, has two.
The WBC title now belongs to Alvarez, who outpointed Cotto this past Saturday to win it. It wouldn’t have remained with Cotto anyway had he come out victorious. Last week Cotto decided that he didn’t want to pay a $300,000 sanctioning fee to the WBC in addition to the $800,000 owed to Golovkin for stepping aside, and the WBC didn’t want to allow Cotto to pay less and opted instead to take the title away from him. Alvarez, who hadn’t sent a dime to Golovkin, paid his fee to the WBC.
The WBC still has its mandate in place; Alvarez must face Golovkin or else lose the title. That’s a good thing, but it’s not enough to guarantee that the fight will happen between the person now sitting on the middleweight throne and the man most capable of seizing power.
Alvarez has spoken before about being willing to face Golovkin. He’s also said, however, that it would need to happen at the right time.
“In the future, why not?” Alvarez said through a translator in May, shortly after he’d knocked out James Kirkland. “I’m open to fighting anybody, but obviously he’s in a different division right now. I wouldn’t want to give anyone advantages, but when I move up eventually, why not? No problem.”
Alvarez has been fighting ever so slightly above the junior middleweight limit for the past two years. He was at 155 against Alfredo Angulo and Erislandy Lara in 2014, at 154.5 against Kirkland and at 155 against Cotto. Those numbers are what were on the scale the day before his fights. He, like most other boxers, adds plenty of weight over the 30-plus hours that follow. But just because he walks into the ring so much heavier doesn’t mean he feels ready to face opponents whose size allows them only to drop down as far as the middleweight limit
He is, like Cotto was, the middleweight champion without proving himself yet as a full-fledged middleweight and against full-fledged middleweights, never mind one with the power and skills that Golovkin has.
Cotto vs. Alvarez would’ve been a significant event even had Golovkin not been part of the conversation. Because Golovkin was, it’s no surprise that Alvarez quickly had to answer a question about him.
“I’ll fight him right now,” Alvarez told HBO’s Max Kellerman.
No boxer speaking immediately after a bout means that literally. But he might not have meant it figuratively either.
“If we do fight, it’s going to be at my weight class,” Alvarez said a little later, as quoted by BoxingScene’s Francisco Salazar. “I’m the champion. I don’t have to do what he wants.”
Alvarez may want to attempt to leverage Golovkin into meeting him at a catch-weight, something that could potentially drain Golovkin’s body, weaken him and give Alvarez a better chance at winning. It’s something silly that fighters do, given that there’s less to brag about if you intentionally seek to avoid having to face the best version of your opponent.
It’s also something Alvarez may not be able to demand. Given that Golovkin is a mandatory challenger to the WBC title, the fight would have to be at 160, according to what Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, told BoxingScene’s Victor Salazar earlier this year.
Then again, money can change minds. Alvarez’s team could offer Golovkin more money to take Canelo’s terms. In that case, Golovkin would decide whether he would be willing to take the cash but pay a price physically, or if he would prefer to go without the payday but end up with the belt anyway. Alvarez also could choose to skip fighting Golovkin for now, vacate the title and continue to compete against other opponents at some weight lighter than 160.
Those are scenarios that won’t have to be confronted just yet, if at all. These are uncertainties that have not yet transitioned into realities.
It was rational for fans to go from thinking about Cotto vs. Alvarez and the prospect of Golovkin to talking about Alvarez vs. Golovkin. But it’s still incredibly early. Cotto vs. Alvarez was just this past Saturday.
Still, Golovkin has waited for much of 2015 for the chance to fight for the WBC title. He — and we — will wait for at least a little longer to learn whether he’ll have to earn the belt with punches or will merely have acquired it through a good bit of politics and even more patience.
The 10 Count is on hiatus.
“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
