De La Hoya says Canelo-Golovkin fight will happen

By Juan Flores: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya has confirmed that he’s working on the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin rematch for Cinco de Mayo next year on May 5th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. De La Hoya, 44, says the Canelo-GGG fight will definitely be happening.

It appears that De La Hoya has had a talk with Canelo Alvarez to find out if he wants to fight the rematch with Triple G in May or not, as he’s now saying he’s working on the rematch. That’s positive news, because the last time De La Hoya spoke, he said he still needed to speak with Canelo to confirm whether he wants the second fight.

“We are working on that for Cinco de Mayo next year in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile,”said De La Hoya to TMZ in talking about the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight. ”The fight is definitely going to happen. “Absolutely, it’s going to happen. If people didn’t see the first one, just wait for the second one. It’s going to be huge,” said De La Hoya.

Canelo likely wants to get the second fight with Golovkin so he can prove to the boxing public once and for all that he’s the better fighter than the Kazakhstan fighter. The two middleweights fought to a contested 12 round draw 2 months ago on September 16 in Las Vegas. A lot of boxing fans thought Canelo did enough to deserve the win, but the judges scored the fight a draw. Canelo landed the cleaner and harder punches all throughout the fight. Even Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler admits it.

”Gennady was pressing the action, but Canelo was landing the more flashy shots.” said Loeffler to Fighhub. “I think the only way to resolve that is to do a rematch. Both guys will need to do more to make a bigger statement to convince the judges. Eric and I are in regular contact, and we can work it out. I don’t think it should be that difficult to do it, because the first fight was so successful. If we can do it on Cinco de Mayo weekend, it would be something for the fans to see. I’m confident on the Triple G side, but I can’t speak for Canelo; although Eric said that’s also their priority. Both guys know the rematch is way up here financially for both guys. Anything else is much lower,” said Loeffler.

Loeffler freely confesses that Canelo landed the better shots in the fight. You got to respect Loeffler’s honesty in saying that. Canelo fought well enough to win.

There’s a lot of money on the table for both fighters. There’s no reason why either guy will want to walk away from the money. Golovkin has a lot of proving to do from the way he fought last time. Golovkin said he was going to come to fight, but he didn’t. Golovkin stood on the outside and jabbed the entire night. It’s the same thing Golovkin did against David Lemieux and Danny Jacobs. Golovkin talked before the fight with Canelo that he was going to fight in the “Mexican style.” That’s didn’t happen. Golovkin fought in the Floyd Mayweather Jr. style, playing it carefully by jabbing on the outside and backing away quickly when Canelo would come forward and try and mix it up.

“You guys saw when Canelo fought Liam Smith at Texas Stadium, they sold a lot of tickets, but their pay-per-views weren’t that great,” said Loeffler. “The Danny Jacobs fight was a good fight. It sound out Madison Square Garden, but again the pay-per-views weren’t anywhere near what we did for Canelo and Triple G. So both guys actually need each other for their careers. They actually sold more tickets and produced more revenue, Canelo and Golovkin, than when Floyd fought Canelo. Both guys need each other to make this kind of major event,” said Loeffler.

Canelo has never said he wouldn’t fight Golovkin. The only Canelo said is he was going to take the remainder of 2017 off and he’d be fighting in May of next year on Cinco de Mayo. Canelo is interested in the GGG rematch if the fight can get negotiated. That’s the end of story. If the fight can’t be made, Canelo will move on and fight someone else. Golovkin can get line like the other fighter waiting and hoping to share the ring with Canelo.

Even if GGG doesn’t get the fight with Canelo next May, there’s nothing keeping the rematch from taking place next September, as long as he agrees to the financials. Golovkin will need to be reasonable in the negotiations and not starting asking for too much. Canelo is the one with the options, not Golovkin.

Canelo is more than willing to accommodate Golovkin by giving him a rematch so that they can please the boxing public, but he’s not going to take the fight if it makes bad business sense. It’s not personal with Canelo. It’s business. Golovkin and Loeffler have to stay down to earth when it comes to working on the purse split for the fight, since they’re not in the position to dictate terms right now.