Canelo vs. Golovkin preliminary talks for May.4 trilogy fight have started says De La Hoya

Sean Jones

Boxingnews24.com

Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions revealed on Saturday that preliminary discussions have started between Golden Boy and Gennady Golovkin for a trilogy fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez on May 4 on Cinco de Mayo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. De La Hoya says he’s going to see what happens with the negotiations. He sounds optimistic, and eager to make the fight.

With all the controversy of the first two Canelo vs. Golovkin fights, it’s important that the two fighters face each other in a trilogy fight so that they can prove who the better fighter is. If Canelo doesn’t fight GGG to clear up the controversy of the first two fights, then the fans would expect him to fight one of these fighters:

Daniel Jacobs

Demetrius Andrade

Billy Joe Saunders

Jermall Charlo

Those are all very tough fighters that would have a good chance of beating Canelo. The interest from the boxing public in watching Canelo fight those guys wouldn’t match the same amount of interest the fans would have in seeing Canelo defend against Triple G in a trilogy fight. That’s the fight that the boxing fans want to see. Even the fans that thought Canelo deserved the decision last September over GGG, still want to see the two face each other in a third fight. Until proven otherwise, Golovkin is considered the #2 fighter at middleweight behind Canelo. If Canelo faces Jacobs, Saunders, Andrade or Charlo, the fans are going to think he’s ducking Golovkin.

The first two fights haven’t proven anything due to the controversial scoring by the judges, who scored the first fight in 2017 a 12 round draw. The judges gave Canelo a controversial 12 round majority decision last September in Las Vegas. The boxing media and the hardcore fans overwhelmingly had Golovkin winning the rematch, as well as the first fight on September 16, 2017.

“This new platform is DAZN. Pay-per-view is dead,” De La Hoya said to ESPN Houston. “Canelo Alvarez is fighting two to three times this year, and fighting the very best. Last night, I had preliminary talks with Golovkin’s people. So we threw it out there about fighting for a third time. Cinco de Mayo is the biggest week in boxing in Las Vegas. So we’re starting talks. Canelo is open to anything. Canelo is a fighter who wants to fight anybody to be great, and so a third fight is a possibility. We’re starting discussions, and we’ll see where it leads from there,” De La Hoya said.

This is bad news for IBF middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing USA, because he’s been repeatedly telling the media that the fans and DAZN wants to see Canelo vs. Jacobs. Hearn believes that fight has got to happen next May, but it doesn’t look like De La Hoya is on the same page as the British promoter. What Hearn doesn’t realize is that it’s important that Canelo fight the guys that the U.S boxing public wants to see him fight. Canelo was just given a huge 11-fight, 5-year, $365 million contract with DAZN to perform on their platform, and they’re going to want value for their money. As GGG’s trainer Abel Sanchez said, it’s unclear whether DAZN has an opt out option in the five year contract with Alvarez, if he doesn’t attract a huge amount of subscribers to the DAZN platform. The only logical reason for why Canelo wouldn’t bring in subscribers to DAZN is if he chooses to milk his 5-year-old contract with them by taking on weak opposition like e just aw in his previous fight against WBA World super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding on December 15. De La Hoya says Canelo only wants to fight the best, but he failed to do that in his last fight against the 31-year-old Fielding, who was knocked down three times in the fight before it was over in the 3rd round.

“A lot of pride is at stake,” De La Hoya said about Canelo’s interest in waning to fight the best. “He’s still a young man. He just turned 28, so he’s got a long ways to go, but he wants to fight the very best. He fights smart, but he still drives the line. It’s a great combination to have. Your career lasts a few more years. You keep a few more marbles in your head,” De La Hoya said.

Canelo is going to have to fight the best now that he’s under contract with DAZN. He’s not going to be able to milk WBA/WBC middleweight titles by fighting the minimum level fighters on DAZN without it hurting his popularity, and causing fewer boxing fans from wanting to subscribe to the platform to see him fight.

It would be a bad idea for Canelo to try and box Golovkin in the trilogy fight, because that could lead to him getting outworked and out-hustled by GGG like in the first fight. Canelo won’t always win his fights by controversial decisions. He’s going to have to prove it sooner or later that he win without favorable scoring.

Golovkin has been keeping a low profile since his loss to Canelo last September. It was a wise move on GGG’s part to be out of the public eye since then, because if he had been hanging around looking and sounding bitter during interviews, it might make Canelo dig his feet into the sand and choose not to fight GGG again soon.

With Golovkin about to to turn 37 on April 8, it’s imperative that Golden Boy Promotions make s the third fight while he’s still young enough to fight. If Canelo and Golden Boy were to put Golovkin on hold for another year until 2020, it’ll look to some like they were just trying to age him so that Canelo will have a better chance of winning. To finally get the credit that he so badly wants, Canelo must face Golovkin as soon as possible, and beat him in a way that doesn’t look like he’s getting special treatment by the Nevada judges.