De La Hoya On Canelo’s Next Move: GGG, Callum Smith, Sergey Kovalev Are All Possibilities

James Slater

Oscar De La Hoya is rightfully proud of his fighter and friend Canelo Alvarez. As the Golden Boy CEO said in question form: “I mean, who fights Golovkin back to back and then Jacobs?” De La Hoya said as quoted by RingTV.com. It is indeed an ever-growing, very impressive resume Canelo has.

Without a doubt proving he is the best middleweight in the world right now, in the opinion of most fans anyway, Canelo has one man and one man only to defeat to make it absolute: Gennady Golovkin. You can find plenty of fans, along with a good deal of experts, who will tell you that GGG deserved to win both fights he had with Canelo; the draw and the close decision defeat. Canelo of course disagrees, yet despite what he says, he has unfinished business with Golovkin.

De La Hoya, looking ahead to the future, listed a third go with GGG as a possibility, along with a super-middleweight title fight challenge of Callum Smith and the possibility of a move up to light-heavyweight and a fight with Sergey Kovalev. All three potential fights are very interesting, and if Canelo picked one of the three, fans would doubtless be happy.

It will come down to what Canelo wants – more belts, at 168 and/or 175, or a decisive win over Golovkin, the man who has pushed the flame-haired warrior harder than anyone aside from Floyd Mayweather. Canelo could take his show on the road – De La Hoya suggesting a fight against Smith at Wembley is a real possibility (yes please, say UK fight fans!) and it would be nice to see him do so (and leave his second home of Las Vegas behind for a while, as he did when crushing Rocky Fielding in New York last year).

Whoever and wherever he fights next, Canelo will again pull in big audiences. It may be debatable that Canelo is the number-one P-4-P fighter in the world, but it is clear Canelo is the number-one draw in the sport. A third fight between Canelo and Golovkin could prove absolutely enormous.