By Edward Chaykovsky
The stage is now set for Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin to have their interim bouts before a potential showdown in the fall.
Canelo (46-1-1, 32KOs) will return on May 7th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, as headliner of an HBO Pay-Per-View, when he defends his WBC middleweight title against Amir Khan, who moves up to a catch-weight of 155-pounds.
Golovkin (34-0, 31KOs) will be back on April 23rd at the Forum in Los Angeles. In an HBO televised main event, he will defend his IBO/WBA/IBF middleweight belts against Dominic Wade, who is the mandatory challenger under the IBF.
Golovkin is the mandatory challenger to Canleo's WBC belt.
The World Boxing Council issued an ordered which approved an interim bout for each fighter - on the condition that they face each other in the fall. Both Canelo and Golovkin are heavy favorites to win their respective returns.
Even with the WBC's order, there is a lot of doubt about the fight actually happening. Golovkin's promoter, Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, believes the financial rewards will be too lucrative for Canelo to pass up.
“If the winner of Canelo vs. Khan doesn’t fight Gennady, then it is clear that Gennady will go from interim to full WBC champion,” Loeffler said to Yahoo Sports. “But we are sure that Canelo is proud to be the WBC middleweight champion so we expect him to defend the title against Gennady, especially with the financial incentives that both fighters are set to gain.”
Money is not the biggest issue at hand. There is still the issue of the weight limit. Canelo wants the fight to take place at 155pounds, while Golovkin has no intention of fighting at anything less than the middleweight limit of 160-pounds.
