By Miguel Rivera
Saul 'Canelo Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs) vs. Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (34-0, 31KOs) is the most anticipated fight of 2016.
Golovkin, who has the IBO/WBA/IBF middleweight titles, is the mandatory challenger to Canelo's WBC championship.
The World Boxing Council has ordered the two of them to face each other in the fall. Both have interim bouts already scheduled. Should both champions come out on top, the WBC will mandate the two of them to begin negotiations for a fall meeting.
Golovkin is back on April 23, when he defends his belts against undefeated Dominic Wade at the Forum in Los Angeles, California. Canelo defends his WBC title against British star Amir Khan on May 7th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Abel Sanchez, who trains Golovkin, doubts Canelo will be capable of hurting his fighter. He watched Canelo's biggest win last November over Miguel Cotto, and felt Cotto was never in trouble or seriously hurt in the contest.
Cotto is not a true middleweight and the fight took place at 155-pounds. If Canelo was unable to put a dent in Cotto, then Sanchez wonders what will happen when Canelo faces a true middleweight like Golovkin at the full division limit of 160-pounds.
Sanchez expects a very entertaining fight in the early rounds, but says Golovkin will slowly take over and secure the victory with a knockout or box his way to a dominating twelve round unanimous decision.
"When [Canelo] fought Miguel Cotto, who is not [fighting] at his natural weight, he couldn't hurt him. So what will happen when he faces someone who doesn't have to compromise on weight like Golovkin. It would be a good fight at first, but eventually it will end because they are going to stop the fight or it's going to be a very wide decision," Sanchez said.
