ARLINGTON, Texas – Canelo Alvarez is open to giving Gennadiy Golovkin an opportunity to avenge his only loss.
If Alvarez fully unifies boxing’s super middleweight titles in his next two fights, the Mexican icon is willing to face Golovkin again in his subsequent bout. Alvarez addressed possibly completing a trilogy with his rival after a press conference Thursday to promote his 168-pound title unification fight against Billy Joe Saunders on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium.
“The truth is I’m open for anything,” Alvarez said. “If the fight happens after unifying at 168 pounds, I’m open for anything. But it would be at 168 pounds.”
The 30-year-old Alvarez won’t box beneath the super middleweight limit of 168 pounds. The 39-year-old Golovkin holds the IBF and IBO middleweight titles, but he’ll have to move up eight pounds to make their third fight finally happen.
Alvarez can’t see any reason why Golovkin shouldn’t move up if he truly wants this third fight.
“If he wants the fight with me, he has to do it,” Alvarez said. “Why wouldn’t he do it? I went up from 154 to 160 to fight with him.”
Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs) and Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) fought to a controversial split draw in their first 12-round middleweight title fight in September 2017 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Their rematch was postponed for four months in 2018 because the Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended Alvarez for six months once he tested positive twice for clenbuterol, a banned substance, in February 2018. Alvarez won their closely contested, 12-round rematch by majority decision in September 2018 at T-Mobile Arena.
DAZN signed Alvarez and Golovkin to multi-fight contracts worth nine figures apiece following their rematch with the intention of arranging their third fight in 2019. It still hasn’t happened for various reasons, initially because Alvarez wasn’t interested in facing Golovkin again.
While the four-division champion is open to that third fight now, he doesn’t think his career will be defined by his rivalry with Golovkin.
“No. I’ve done a lot,” Alvarez said. “I’ve fought a lot of good fighters, a lot of champions. I beat him and I think that everything else will leave the legacy of my career.”
Kazakhstan’s Golovkin could face WBA middleweight champion Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) on December 31 in Murata’s native Japan. He might box before then as well, perhaps sometime late this summer.
Alvarez, of Guadalajara, Mexico, and Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs), of Manchester, England, will fight for Alvarez’s WBA and WBC and Saunders’ WBO belt in DAZN’s main event Saturday night at the home stadium of the Dallas Cowboys. If the favored Alvarez wins, he will pursue a September bout against unbeaten IBF champ Caleb Plant (21-0, 12 KOs).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
