Canelo vs. Golovkin II rematch at risk, De La Hoya says they’re moving on

Boxingnews24.com

By Sean Jones: Saul Canelo Alvarez’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions says he’s moving on due to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin not agreeing to the deal that they have in place for him, which is EXACT same deal that was offered to him for the rematch that failed to take place on May 5.

De La Hoya says that Canelo will move on and face one of these fighters on September 15 unless Golovkin agrees to the terms they have for the rematch:

– Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan

– Billy Joe Saunders

– Daniel Jacobs

– Jermall Charlo

The only name on that list with any reasonable chance of fighting Canelo on September 15 is O’Sullivan. It’s interesting that De La Hoya even bothered to include mentioning Saunders, Jacobs and Charlo’s names, because those are not guys that have a chance of fighting Canelo. It’s doubtful that De La Hoya will let any of those guys get a shot at Canelo anytime soon if ever. Charlo is simply too big, too strong and too talented for him to get a shot at Canelo in my opinion. De La Hoya never matched Canelo against Charlo when they were both fighting at 154, so I don’t see how that changes now that they’re both at 160.

Not surprisingly, Golovkin doesn’t want to accept the same terms for the May 5th rematch, because Canelo inconvenienced him by testing positive twice for the banned substance clenbuterol, causing GGG to waste valuable time training for him. Canelo’s positive tests and subsequent pulling out of the fight has now put Golovkin’s IBF middleweight title in jeopardy, as the International Boxing Federation wants him to defend against his IBF mandatory Sergey Derevyanchenko by August 3 or else they’ll strip him of his title.

If Canelo had faced Golovkin on May 5, as his WBC mandatory, then there wouldn’t be any problems with his IBF belt, because he would be facing him next. The way things are now, Golovkin could lose his IBF title if a deal is made for the Canelo rematch on September 15. Golovkin will have the rematch that he wants against Canelo, but it’ll come at a cost of him losing his IBF belt. As such, Golovkin wants to be compensated for the inconvenience that Canelo has put him through. Just how much of a bigger percentage Golovkin wants for the rematch is unknown at this point.

Loeffler obviously is in the right to ask for a better percentage for the rematch with Canelo because of these reasons:

• Canelo’s 2 positive tests for clenbuterol

• Wasted training time for Golovkin getting ready for the canceled rematch with Canelo on May 5

• IBF title now due for GGG, and the high probability that he’ll be stripped of the belt if he faces Canelo on September 15

• Controversy surrounding the questionable results of last September’s Canelo-Golovkin fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada

”If the Canelo fight happened in May, there wouldn’t be an issue with the title,” Loeffler said to RingTV.com. ”There are a lot of issues that arose because of Canelo’s positive test. He wants to be fairly compensated. He made a lot of (financial) sacrifices for the first fight and the rematch. And since the rematch was cancelled he wants a more equitable percentage,” Loeffler said.

It sounds like Golovkin is being more assertive now after taking the smaller cut for the first fight against Canelo last September. Golovkin is not happy with the results of the first fight, and additionally he’s still angry about the Mexican star’s two positive tests for clenbuterol last February. Golovkin thinks Canelo was trying to pull a fast one on him by using a performance enhancing substance to try and gain an edge against him in their May 5 rematch.

Golovkin wanting a better deal from Canelo is par for the course for what he’s gone through. If Canelo and Golden Boy reject his request for a better deal, then they’re going to make less money fighting O’Sullivan. That’s a very poor replacement to take the place of GGG for September 15. Canelo vs. Charlo would likely bring in the most about of interest from the boxing world, because he’s fighting at the top of his game and looking very good right now.

Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs) stopped Hugo Centeno Jr. (26-2, 14 KOs) in the 2nd round on April 21 to capture the interim World Boxing Council middleweight title at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. That was a brilliant display of punching by the 6’0” Charlo in flattening Centeno Jr. Charlo would have a 4” inch height and a 3 ½” reach advantage over the 5’8” Canelo Alvarez. That’s a significant advantage in size for Charlo. It doesn’t matter that Canelo would likely rehydrate to a higher weight than Charlo. He would still be at a huge disadvantage in size, power, speed and athleticism against the Texas native Charlo. That’s why it’s very unlikely De La Hoya or Golden Boy President Eric Gomez would even consider for a second of matching Canelo against Jermall Charlo. His name was likely just thrown out there by De La Hoya to the media so it would make Canelo sound like he has serious backup options for his September 15 fight. If De La Hoya had said Canelo’s only option to replace Golovkin is Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan, he would have been laughed at on the spot, and it would hurt his ability to negotiate with Loeffler for the GGG rematch.

The reality is Loeffler and Golovkin know full well that Canelo’s only option besides him is O’Sullivan. It’s abundantly clear that O’Sullivan is the only Plan-B option Canelo has for September 15, and he’s always been the option. Golden Boy placing O’Sullivan in the co-feature bout on featherweight prospect Ryan Garcia’s card on May 4th at the StubHub Arena showed clearly that he’s the guy that they plan on matching against Canelo on September 15 on HBO PPV. De La Hoya and Golden Boy must realize the huge amount of criticism they’ll get from the boxing fans if they use O’Sullivan as the replacement opponent, but they can always give the excuse that they didn’t have enough time to negotiate a deal with Charlo, Saunders or Jacobs, so they had little choice but to make the fight with Spike.

If Canelo doesn’t fight Golovkin next, then it’s very likely that his opponent will be fellow Golden Boy fighter Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan (28-2, 20 KOs). He’s an easy mark, very beatable, and best of all, he’s signed with De La Hoya. The other names that De La Hoya mentioned – Saunders, Jacobs and Charlo – appear to be just thrown in there by him to get GGG to sign quickly to the terms they want for him rather than being serious opponents for Canelo. There’s very little at all that De La Hoya would match Canelo against Saunders, Charlo or Jacobs. The only one of those three that De La Hoya might put Canelo in with is Jacobs, and that’s only because he’s looked so bad lately in his last two fights against Maciej Sulecki and Luis Arias.

Jacobs is starting to look like he’d lost a few steps since his grueling match against Golovkin last year in March. WBO middleweight champion Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) isn’t a puncher, so he would be an option for Canelo, because then the only thing De La Hoya would have to worry about is whether his Mexican star can out-box him. If Canelo fights Saunders or Jacobs in Las Vegas, you would have to believe that he would be near unbeatable if it goes to a decision. Canelo is very hard to beat when fighting in Las Vegas in fights that go the distance.

We saw that in his fight with Golovkin as well as Erislandy Lara. In Canelo’s fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013 in Las Vegas, one judge had it scored 114-114. The fight was totally one-sided in Mayweather’s favor, and yet one judge scored it a draw. If Canelo fights Jacobs or Saunders in Las Vegas, he would likely be favored. Charlo is a different story. Since Charlo knocks out most of his opponents, the judging probably won’t play a part for a fight between him and Canelo. However, he’s also the least likely to be chosen by De La Hoya.

Loeffler needs to schedule the fight with Derevyanchenko so that Golovkin can get that fight out of the way. If De La Hoya wants to restart negotiations for the Canelo-GGG II fight for May of 2019, then he can certainly do that are the two fighters face their next opponents. If Golovkin destroys Derevyanchenko, he’ll be in a better position to get a higher percentage against Canelo in May of next year. Canelo’s stock will drop if he takes the fight with O’Sullivan rather than Charlo, Jacobs or Saunders.