By Victor Salazar

New York - The middleweight division is starting to heat up and becoming one with a multitude of possibilities of matchups. At the top of the matchups is the rematch of the highly contested draw between Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2. 34 KO’s) and Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KO’s). The bout seems to be lined up for next year, according to Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez.

“I think that Golovkin’s next fight is Canelo,” Sanchez told BoxingScene.com

There is no bigger fight for either fighter in the near future. After the Canelo fight, Sanchez is unclear of the path Team Golovkin will take.

“After that rematch with Canelo, who knows?” said the trainer. “It’s a matter of sitting down with the whole team and trying to line up a path that’s best for Gennady. Nothing is written in stone and you just mentioned [David] Lemieux should he win [with Billy Joe Saunders] and that’s another name that could happen next year. Depending on how the whole negotiations go with Tom Loefller and Golden Boy who handles Canelo, then we can map out 2018.”

A name that has presented itself is the mandatory to Golovkin’s WBC middleweight title - Jermall Charlo (26-0, 20 KO’s). Charlo recently moved up to middleweight and knocked out John Sebastian Heiland to become the mandatory. Sanchez says that just like Golovkin had to wait his turn, so does Charlo.

“He knocked out a cripple, Sanchez said of Charlo stopping Heiland. “I think he has to earn he right to fight Golovkin. Just like a guy like Keith Thurman is telling Spence he has to wait to fight because he’s not known. I think these guys have to earn a shot to fight someone like Golovkin or Canelo. Reason they want to fight Golovkin or Canelo is because they want to cash out.”

The big names would not fight Golovkin for years and Sanchez feels Charlo has to bring something to the table to fight Golovkin.

“They want a big purse. Golovkin was number 1 rated for Felix Sturm for two years and then Martinez. Then we were mandatory for Cotto and even for Canelo it took a while. You have to make sure the people want the fight. Can you imagine what Charlo would do in sales? He wouldn’t sell nothing. I think we like to make title fights but obviously you have to earn them and he hasn’t earned it.”