Golovkin's Promoter: If No Canelo, Saunders - Hopkins Possible

By Victor Salazar

Promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions is going to pursue several fall options for IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (34-0, 31KOs). 

Golovkin is scheduled to return on April 23rd at the Forum in Los Angeles. In an HBO televised main event, Golovkin will defend his world titles against undefeated IBF mandatory challenger Dominic Wade (18-0, 12KOs).

Should Golovkin come through with a win, the top priority on the list is a mandatory fight with WBC middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs).

Canelo has a fight scheduled of his own, when he returns on May 7th to defend his title against Amir Khan at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That fight is taking place at a catch-weight of 155-pounds.

The World Boxing Council has allowed both boxer to take an interim fight in the first half of the year, under the agreement that Canelo and Golovkin would fight each other in the fall.

If Canelo decides to go in another direction, he will be stripped of the title and Golovkin would become the full champion.

The next option on the list would be a unification with WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders.

If Loeffler is unable to get Canelo or Saunders, he will explore the possibility of a fight between Golovkin and living legend Bernard 'The Alien' Hopkins (55-7-2, 32KOs). That fight would take place at the super middleweight limit of 168-pounds. Hopkins, a former unified champion at 160 and 175, has never fought at 168 and was last in the ring losing a twelve round decision to Sergey Kovalev in November 2014.

"I have to go down plan A through F just to try and get someone in there with Gennady,” explained Loeffler. "Obviously if there’s a huge unification out there, whether it be Alvarez or Saunders, we’ll chase that but if not - Hopkins would be an option.”