By Jake Donovan

The fate of the biggest fight to be made among active fighters in the sport today will be learned within the next 15 days.

Talks are officially underway between the respective camps for World middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and unbeaten, unified middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin.

As reported on Monday by BoxingScene.com News Editor Steve Kim, Oscar de la Hoya – Alvarez’ promoter – already reached out to Tom Loeffler, managing director of K2 Promotions to lay the foundation for such a fight to materialize. The conversation took place less than a day after Alvarez (47-1-1, 32KOs) made his first successful title defense with a crushing, one-punch 6th round knockout of Amir Khan on May 7 in Las Vegas, as Golovkin observed from ringside.

The bout was formally ordered on Monday by the World Boxing Council, whom recognizes Alvarez as its champion and Golovkin as his mandatory challenger by virtue of his status as interim titlist.

“Both boxers and their teams were notified through (a formal) letter that the 30-day free negotiations period was due to begin on Monday, May 9,” WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman confirmed to BoxingScene.com. “They will have 15 days to reach an agreement, in which case a purse bid hearing will be held on May 24.”

Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs) has been mandatory challenger to the WBC title dating back to his 2nd round knockout of Marco Antonio Rubio. He was granted permission to challenge Rubio for the interim title despite already holding a major title through another sanctioning body. In fact, Golovkin currently owns the World Boxing Association (WBA) “Super” middleweight title, the International Boxing Organization (IBO) belt and recently added the International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight strap last October.

The latter came in a knockout win over David Lemieux in their unification bout at Madison Square Garden. Golovkin was permitted to retain his WBC mandatory challenger status in exchange for allowing Alvarez (47-1-1, 32KOs) to jump the line and challenge then-WBC/Lineal champ Miguel Cotto last November, earning a unanimous decision win.

The aforementioned condition was supposed to prompt immediate negotiations between Alvarez and Golovkin. Instead, the two sides reached a pact where they would take on an interim fight, with the agreement of immediately entering talks one business day following the conclusion of the latter bout.

Golovkin’s moment came in the form of an IBF mandatory title defense, slaughtering overmatched Dominic Wade inside of two rounds this past April in front of a sold-out crowd at The Forum in Inglewood, California. His bout was a box-office success in addition to serving as the most-watched cable TV fight of 2016 to date, with his HBO headliner drawing more than 1.3 million viewers.

Alvarez’ win over Khan headlined an HBO-Pay-Per-View event, although it is too early into the promotion to forecast the total buys and moneys generated. Regardless, Alvarez has emerged as the face of boxing in Mexico as well as the most bankable boxer in the stateside market in the wake of the recent announced retirements of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

The combined star power of Mayweather and Pacquiao produced the most lucrative event in boxing history, with their long-awaited clash destroying box office records in generating more than $600 million in total revenue.

However, not only was the fight itself a dud in the ring, but one that came after more than five years of discussion.

The hope here is that Alvarez and Golovkin are both far more understanding of the public demand and ultimately give boxing fans the biggest fight to be made today.

Weight has been the one major talking point from the moment the matchup was first floated. Alvarez won the lineal championship from Cotto in a Nov. ’15 clash that took place at a catchweight of 155-pounds. That limit has been Alvarez’ preferred weight for the past several years, just north of the super welterweight division where he previously served as a unified titlist before suffering a 12-round defeat to Mayweather in Sept. ’13.

Each of his past five starts have taken place with a 155-pound maximum catchweight in place, including last weekend’s win over Khan.

Golovkin is in a unique position where he can demand the fight take place with the division’s 160-pound limit as the ceiling, as sanctioning bodies do not honor catchweight agreements for mandatory title fights.

Should Alvarez disagree to budge on his stance, he could always choose to vacate and compete closer to super welterweight, with or without a belt at stake while continuing to draw strong crowds and viewing audiences. Such a move would give Golovkin the belt by default, but also leave him without by far his most lucrative in-ring option.

For what it’s worth, Alvarez insisted during his post-fight press conference following his knockout over Khan that there would not be any issues, weight or otherwise. If that is the case, it will then be up to the Golovkin camp to consider whatever offer is presented by Golden Boy Promotions, with the hope – at least for Golovkin and among boxing fans – of the fight taking place at a major venue on September 17 in conjunction with Mexico’s Independence Day.

The next 15 days should reveal all the answers the boxing public will – or won’t- want to hear.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Follow him on his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2