LAS VEGAS — Middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez basically defied Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya and his braintrust when he demanded that they make a junior middleweight unification fight with Austin Trout in 2013.
Alvarez badly wanted the fight and his handlers gave in and made it. Alvarez won a competitive fight in front of an adoring crowd of about 40,000 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Then Alvarez took on the best fighter in the world, Floyd Mayweather, in what was the richest fight in boxing history at the time. Although it turned out to be a one-sided decision loss, Alvarez once again dared to be great by fighting the most dangerous opponent he could.
And then after Alvarez beat Alfredo Angulo in his comeback fight, Erislandy Lara crashed his post-fight news conference and called out Alvarez. Rather than ignore the slick Cuban, Alvarez once again told Golden Boy to make the fight, one company officials did not want to make. But Alvarez made them look good by winning a well-deserved split decision in 2014.
“I fought the best, I’ve never been afraid of anyone. My record speaks for itself. You look at my (last) 10 opponents compared to his (last) 10 opponents you can see. There’s no reason to be afraid of him. He needs to work his way up. He needs to earn his shot.” Canelo Alvarez on a possible fight with Gennady Golovkin
And in November, Alvarez took on future Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto and outpointed him to win the middleweight championship.
Alvarez’s track record going after the best opponents has been firmly established with those bold moves. But it is about to be tested in a big way.
Should Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) defeat Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs), the heavy underdog and a welterweight moving up to fight him at a catchweight of 155 pounds on Saturday night (HBO, 9 ET) at the T-Mobile Arena, he has a decision to make: fight the fearsome unified titleholder Gennady Golovkin, he of the 22 knockouts in a row, in a mandatory defense (courtesy of GGG also owning an interim belt), or be stripped of the title.
It is a massive fight if it happens, a surefire pay-per-view hit as the one fight boxing fans and media have been hoping for. It is also easily the most dangerous fight Alvarez could take. There was little chance Mayweather, Lara or Trout would knock him out. Perhaps they would outbox him, and Cotto was a little long in the tooth. He did not risk all that much bodily harm the way he would against Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs).
Recently, Alvarez and De La Hoya both said the fight would happen eventually but they would not commit to it in the fall, which is when it is mandated to take place based on the deal Alvarez, Golovkin and the WBC worked out in which each man would take interim fights. Golovkin crushed mandatory challenger Dominic Wade in two rounds on April 23. Alvarez has Khan on Saturday.
But when questioned once again if he would fight GGG in the fall should he win Saturday, Alvarez defiantly dug his heels in more than he ever has.
“I fought the best, I’ve never been afraid of anyone,” Alvarez said Wednesday while meeting with several boxing media at the MGM Grand. “My record speaks for itself. You look at my [last] 10 opponents compared to his [last] 10 opponents, you can see. There’s no reason to be afraid of him.
“He needs to work his way up. He needs to earn his shot.”
Earn his shot? Golovkin, who plans to be ringside Saturday, has tried to fight all of the top fighters, only to be rejected time and again, and never mind that he has defended his title 16 times (second most in division history) and is riding that impressive knockout streak, not to mention selling out arenas on both coasts and drawing strong viewership numbers on HBO.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” Alvarez said when asked about the constant talk of a Golovkin fight. “In the past it’s been other names. You get used to it. The one that needs to escalate himself for this fight is him. Fighting the type of opponent [Wade] he fought a couple of weeks ago? Come on, that’s not going to bring this fight.”
Bernard Hopkins, a partner in Golden Boy with a vested interest in Alvarez continuing to win, even brought something of an absurdity in a transparent attempt to shield Alvarez from the coming criticism if he refuses to face Golovkin. He said that for Golovkin to earn the fight with Alvarez he should have to fight unified light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev.
Say what? Why would Golovkin move up two weight classes to prove he deserves to face the middleweight champion? Hopkins also failed to mention that Kovalev has said repeatedly he cannot move down to super middleweight because he wouldn’t be able to make the weight.
Further, Hopkins neglected this well-established fact: Kovalev is fighting Isaac Chilemba on July 11 and then has a signed contract (as long as he retains his title against Chilemba) to defend against undefeated former super middleweight champion Andre Ward in November.
Alvarez then slammed Golovkin’s opponent selection yet again, clearly adding another talking point to the list of reasons why few expect that he will face GGG in the fall.
“He would have to fight somebody who could complicate him, somebody who has skills,” Alvarez said. “He has all these knockouts but who has he fought? Opponents who are right there to be hit.”
