By Radio Rahim
One of the most anticipated fights in boxing is a collision between Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin.
Fans are crossing their fingers to see this match in the near future. Most expect the fight to come off at some point in 2017.
Earlier this year, Canelo (47-1-1, 33KOs) was ordered by the World Boxing Council to make a mandatory defense of the middleweight belt against Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs) . Not long after his sixth round knockout of Amir Khan on May 7th, Canelo made a decision to vacate the WBC strap.
Golovkin, who now holds the WBC/WBA/IBF/IBO middleweight titles, is planning to fight in September - with or without Canelo in the other corner.
Former two division champion and Showtime expert analyst Paulie Malignaggi believes Canelo's next opponent or two will reveal his true intentions when it comes to facing Golovkin.
If he fights a middleweight or two, he is likely preparing himself for a possible Golovkin fight. If he drops down to junior middleweight, then a Golovkin fight is not likely in the near future. Canelo's last five fights have taken place at 155, which is one-pound above the junior middleweight limit.
"We'll see by the way he picks his next opponents if he plans to fight Golovkin. If he's fighting middleweights then maybe [he'll fight Golovkin]. If he goes back to junior middleweight, which is probably where he belongs anyway, then I don't know if we'll see the Golovkin fight - at least not right away," Malignaggi told BoxingScene.com.
As far as junior middleweight goes, Malignaggi sees a lot of competition down there for Canelo - and a lot of fighters who could give the Mexican superstar some fits.
"For me, the junior middleweight division is the best in boxing right now. You have a solid top eight there, who could be number one in a lot of weight classes," Malignaggi said.
"Jermall Charlo looked great in his last fight, I think he could give a lot of problems to Canelo. I think Demetrius Andrade would give a lot of issues for Canelo. Julian Williams is not a champion and I think he has issues for everyone at 154, including Canelo. There are probably guys that I'm not even remembering. Vanes [Martirosyan] is solid and he can punch. [Erislandy] Lara is there, who Canelo already fought. That weight is stacked."
