By Steve Kim
Several thousand fans flocked to the Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon to see the public workouts of IBO, WBC, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.
The two boxers will engage in their rematch on September 15th in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena.
Last September, the two boxers fought to a controversial twelve round split draw - with scores of 118-110 for Canelo, 115-113 for Golovkin and 114-114 for the draw.
Sunday's open workouts were the first time during the ongoing promotion that both boxers had appeared together and the turnout showed that this is still the biggest event on the boxing schedule for 2018.
"It's always been a big event but as we get closer is when everything starts coming out, a lot of the promotion kicks in, the marketing kicks in and obviously we always planned on doing a big workout for both fighters and I'm just glad it turned out great,'' said Eric Gomez, the president of Golden Boy Promotions, to BoxingScene.com.
Last year's event did over 1.3 million pay-per-view buys and generated the third highest gate in Nevada history at just over $27 million dollars. With a few week left till the first bell rings for the rematch, plenty of tickets still remain unsold but Gomez believes that interest in this fight is higher than it was last year.
"It's greater," he stated, "The controversy, people having to wait, it's peaked now and I think it's a lot bigger event now."
The two boxers were initially set to fight on May 5, as part of Cinco De Mayo weekend. But Canelo tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol back in February, and was forced to withdraw from the date after being hit with a six month suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com