By Keith Idec
Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin came to Los Angeles on Sunday to promote their rematch.
The middleweight rivals briefly left their training camps to participate in public workouts at Banc of California Stadium and interacted with fans. They also answered questions from reporters as they tried to draw attention to their HBO Pay-Per-View main event September 15 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The twist was that they did everything individually and didn’t spend a single second together. That’s just fine by Alvarez, who doesn’t want to partake in typical promotional photo opportunities while standing face-to-face with Golovkin.
“It’s something I don’t really care for,” Alvarez said Sunday, according to a translator. “At the end of the day, I’m gonna be meeting him in the ring. So I’m not worried if I don’t see them. It’s something that whether they decided to do or not, I’m not worried about that.”
Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) and Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) haven’t come face-to-face since it was revealed early in March that Alvarez twice tested positive for clenbuterol, a banned substance. The Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended Alvarez for six months, which led to the cancelation of their May 5 fight.
Once their middleweight championship rematch was rescheduled for September 15, they participated from separate locations in a makeshift press conference that was streamed live on Golden Boy Promotions’ Facebook page.
“That didn’t come from the Triple-G side,” Tom Loeffler, Golovkin’s promoter, said Sunday. “Gennady has no problem looking Canelo in the eyes.”
The decision to keep Kazakhstan’s Golovkin and Mexico’s Alvarez separated at least until fight week came as a surprise to Golovkin’s team.
“Usually for a big pay-per-view like this, we’ll do a world tour,” Loeffler said. “Last time we were even in London, promoting the fight. This time around, [after] discussions with Golden Boy, they felt that we had announced this for May, pretty much being reset for September 15th, with all the controversy it makes it even bigger than the first fight. But again, to be clear, the decision wasn’t from the Triple-G side. Gennady has promoted fights all over the world and he’s one of the most open fighters, in terms of access to his training camp, sitting down like this. He went to a big UFC event up in Las Vegas.
“So he’s always up for promoting the fight, and again, he has no problem looking Canelo in the eyes, whether now or during fight week. And I think it was – the reading I got, it was the Canelo side that just wanted to focus on the training and not go through the whole promotion.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.