By Edward Chaykovsky
Abel Sanchez, trainer of IBF, IBO, WBC, WBO middleweight champion Gennady "GGG" Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs), says a fight with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) should be their next opponent for the sake of boxing.
Golovkin is scheduled to make a mandatory defense against Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29KOs) on March 18th at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Canelo is in talks for a potential catch-weight bout with countryman Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for May 6th, as part of Cinco De Mayo weekend.
If Golovkin and Canelo are successful in their upcoming assignments, Sanchez is hoping the two boxers will collide in the fall.
There are ongoing discussions to have them face each other in September, as part of Mexican Independence Day weekend, but they've had trouble finalizing the financial details. Canelo's handlers are offering a flat fee, while Golovkin is demanding a percentage of the revenue.
Golovkin's promoter, Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, did everything possible to make this fight in 2016, but it never came together.
The year started off with Canelo being ordered to make a mandatory defense of the WBC middleweight belt against Golovkin, who at the time held the interim-title. After making a voluntary defense against Amir Khan in May, Canelo vacated the WBC title and moved back to junior middleweight. Once Canelo vacated the title, the World Boxing Council elevated Golovkin to full champion status.
"That’s the best fight in boxing right now. That’s the next fight that should happen, two of the best and most popular guys in boxing right now and they need to get in front of each other and decide who is the number one guy. Until that happens, we’re going to keep talking about it, but from what I understand from Tom, negotiations are going real good and if they are, we still have eight months to finish them off and get them together," Sanchez told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
