By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – We might not necessarily need to wait until May 5 to see Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin go at it again.
Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez indicated Tuesday that it’s possible their middleweight championship rematch could take place prior to the most logical date. Gomez acknowledged, too, that it’ll be tough to resist scheduling an Alvarez-Golovkin rematch for May 5 because it’s Cinco de Mayo, a huge holiday for Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, and boxing pay-per-view events typically perform well on the first Saturday in May.
“That’s open right now,” Gomez said before a press conference at Madison Square Garden to officially announce the Miguel Cotto-Sadam Ali fight December 2. “That’s open to discussions. We’ve talked about maybe doing it a little sooner, maybe in March. But it’s hard to compete with May. It’s a very good pay-per-view month.”
Mexico’s Alvarez has fought on the first Saturday in May each of the past two years in pay-per-view fights against Amir Khan (2016) and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (this year). Alvarez also said following his 12-round draw with Golovkin on September 16 that he won’t return to the ring until May 5.
Regardless, it seems as though Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) and Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) are headed toward a rematch in the next fight for both boxers. They’re not contractually obligated to an immediate rematch, but it clearly is the most meaningful, profitable fight available to Alvarez and Golovkin.
“The Monday after the fight, we started talking,” Gomez said, referring to discussions about a rematch with Tom Loeffler, Golovkin’s promoter. “And I actually have a meeting tomorrow [Wednesday] again with Tom, and we’re close. But that’s the fight we want, that’s what Canelo wants and it deserves a rematch.”
Alvarez could fight someone else next and push back the Golovkin rematch to September 2018, but he seems more interested in proving he can beat the Kazakh knockout artist.
“He felt he won the fight,” Gomez said. “He felt he did good. He felt he didn’t get credit for a lot of the body punches he threw, because he landed a lot to the body. He out-worked Golovkin to the body and he didn’t get credit for this defense, so he was a little upset about that. But he also knows now that all he has to do is adjust a little bit, and he feels that he can easily beat him.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
