Canelo Alvarez vs Gennadiy Golovkin remains one of the most followed rivalries in modern professional boxing. Two of the best boxers of this generation battled it out twice in the past when Canelo was a middleweight, with the first encounter ending in a draw and the Mexican picking up a win in the rematch. While a trilogy fight remains a thing of desire for many boxing fans, there hasn’t been much progress since Canelo moved up to super-middleweight and recently became the undisputed champion. However, Golovkin’s recent comments do up the possibilities of a trilogy fight, but the Kazakhstani isn’t very invested in it.
Golovkin and Canelo first crossed paths on 16th September 2017 when “GGG” was the reigning WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, and IBO middleweight world champion. However, the fight ended in a controversial split decision draw and the two had their rematch a year later, with Canelo winning the WBA (Super), WBC, and IBO belts via majority decision, giving Golovkin his sole career defeat so far.
Soon after the Golovkin rematch, Canelo jumped to super-middleweight and after a couple bouts back in middleweight as well as light heavyweight, the Mexican settled down at 168 and gradually earned the undisputed championship earlier this month and is expected to face WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu, while Golovkin is set to put up his IBF and IBO middleweight titles to face WBA (Super) champion Ryota Murata on 29th December.
Gennadiy Golovkin vs Canelo Alvarez 3: Possible only if GGG receives an offer to jump weight
Despite the two being in different weight classes at the moment, Golovkin has not ruled out the possibility of a third fight against Canelo, as in an interview with Sky Sports, he termed the fight “possible.”
“Theoretically nothing has changed,” said Golovkin, “There are certain questions which have been posed [to Canelo]. They are still open, they remain unanswered. We have been discussing it but haven’t moved towards this fight for quite some time. You are interested because he beat all the UK fighters! But it is of no concern to me. We fought, I know who he is. I don’t think about him at all,” Golovkin said. “It isn’t something I don’t give any thought to.”
However, the trilogy fight will mean GGG will have to go up the divisions and the 39-year-old isn’t interested until he receives good offer for it and also adds that the fighters in the division will only be using his name for promotion.
“I don’t want to entertain moving to a different division unless there is an offer on the table,” Golovkin asserted,“Imagine if I moved to 175-pounds, the number of people calling me out will increase by 30 percent! The army of fighters who self-promote themselves by using my name would only increase in number.” [H/T Boxing Scene]
Highlights:
- Gennadiy Golovkin says Canelo Alvarez fight is a possibility but he won’t be moving up divisions unless an offer is presented
- Their first fight ended in a draw, while Canelo won the second faceoff via majority decision
