Gennadiy Golovkin may never be in a mood to shake the hand of Canelo Alvarez ever again, but that does not necessarily mean that the Kazakh puncher isn’t looking forward to throwing sanctioned punches at his bête noir.
In an interview published earlier this week, Golovkin, the IBF middleweight titleholder, offered rare – and non entirely negative – remarks on facing Alvarez, the current undisputed 168-pound champion, for a third time. Despite the well-documented and mutually reinforcing animosity between him and Alvarez, Golovkin maintained a very high opinion of that potential showdown. From Golovkin's perspective, after all, there is plenty of unfinished business.
The pair first fought in 2017, in a middleweight unification bout that ended in a hotly disputed split draw; many observers believed Golovkin deserved the nod. The rematch took place in 2018, but this time Alvarez had his hands raised, winning a majority decision that, while close, was less controversial than the first fight, due to Alvarez’s effective aggression. But by that point, the relationship between the two competitors, which was initially cordial in the first fight, was beyond repair. Golovkin made critical remarks about Alvarez testing positive for a PED going into the rematch that greatly angered the Mexican champion.
It has been no secret that Golovkin has long wanted another shot at Alvarez, given that he has resolutely insisted over the intervening years that he never truly lost the first two fights. Golovkin signed with DAZN in 2019, a few months after Alvarez had signed with the subscription streaming platform, with the express intention of fighting Alvarez some point down the line. But executives at DAZN appear at the time to have underestimated Alvarez’s animus toward Golovkin and, without having had a binding commitment from Alvarez to face Golovkin, the fight, to this day, has not happened. Alvarez, now a network free agent, has since moved up to the 168-pound class and unified that division last year, while seeing his name reach a new stratosphere in the sport. Golovkin, in the meantime, has been somewhat under the radar, continuing to fight at middleweight while maintaining a far less active schedule than that of his rival.
Despite whatever perceived belatedness may be associated with a third fight, Golovkin thinks he alone has the ability to trouble Alvarez inside the ring.
“[Someone] shared an opinion that I was probably the one that chased Canelo away from the middleweights of the division,” Golovkin said through a translator on the podcast Walking the Floor with Chris Shiflett. “I’m not sure whether that is true.
“But I know Canelo as a fighter, and I have the keys to how to open him up, how to fight against [him].”
Recent reports suggest that the long-awaited match-up could be in the offing. Mike Coppinger of ESPN reported that Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) is mulling a two-fight deal from Eddie Hearn of Matchroom to fight on DAZN. The first fight would be against light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol in the spring. The second fight would be against Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs), although Golovkin would have to come out victorious against his postponed middleweight bout against Ryota Murata, which could take place in the spring in Tokyo.
Golovkin struck a charitable note while discussing Alvarez. He noted that his key insights into Alvarez also mean that Alvarez knows a few things about his own strengths and weaknesses as well.
“I’m certain that he studied me as well and that he has some things in his arsenal as well,” Golovkin said. “So definitely there is an interest in the fight. It is an attractive opportunity. We know that after the second fight we offered a rematch, but basically he went up and chased other opportunities.”
“When this fight might happen isn’t clear. Only time will tell. But we know that it’s going to be interesting because of our knowledge of each other as opponents.”
The 39-year-old Golovkin last fought in December, defeating Polish mandatory Kamil Szeremeta inside seven rounds at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
