It came as a surprise to many when Canelo Alvarez and his team began to push for a third fight with Gennadiy Golovkin in December despite Alvarez’s previous suggestion that he had no interest in facing GGG again.
The fight is one of the biggest that can be made in boxing due to the highly competitive nature of the previous fights that could have gone either way with a split draw in the first meeting and Alvarez narrowly winning a decision in the rematch. The intention to put the two together and settle the score appeared to be in motion when Golovkin joined Alvarez under the DAZN umbrella in 2019.
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But just as soon as fans rejoiced, Golovkin shot down the idea in an interview with Sports Illustrated and said that he would first like to fulfill his mandatory IBF middleweight title defense against Kamil Szeremeta before agreeing to fight Canelo.
Eddie Hearn, who co-promotes Golovkin, appeared on the Boxing with Chris Mannix podcast to explain what he believes should take place in order to make the third fight happen before the end of 2020.
“(Golovkin) already had a signed contract with Szeremeta,” Hearn explained of the previously agreed upon title defense that was set to take place before COVID-19 thwarted those plans. “He already feels he’s been messed around once so he got a new plan, signed that and now he’s told, ‘No, you have to fight Canelo in September.'”
Hearn also cited the distinct possibility that Golovkin would be stripped of the IBF title he just won back in a hard-fought victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko if he skips his mandatory to face Alvarez. Golovkin escaped with a close unanimous decision victory to reclaim the title that he lost to Alvarez and was subsequently vacated when he decided against facing Dervyanchenko in 2019.
In an effort to appease both sides as well as fans, Hearn has created a path to get Canelo-GGG 3 before the end of the year.
“What I would like to see happen is that Gennadiy Golovkin fights Szeremeta in August and I would like to see Billy Joe Saunders fight Canelo Alvarez in September,” Hearn said. “And in December, the winners fight.”
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down the sports world, it appeared that a Canelo-Saunders fight was going to take place in May for Saunders’ WBO super middleweight title.
Mannix countered with the amount of money that would have to be paid out to all parties before finally getting to a third Canelo-GGG fight whereas they could skip the formalities, save a few dollars and put the fight on that fans want to see in September.
“These aren’t new fights that are just rocketing out of nowhere,” Hearn responded. “These were fights that were already due to happen.”
With the great unknown being exactly when boxing will be able to take place in front of a live audience, the idea of pushing Canelo-GGG 3 to December could avoid that hurdle entirely should the world find some semblance of normalcy.
“(Canelo-GGG 3) is one fight where we really do need to put that into DAZN’s calendar,” Hearn said. “Hopefully in December, we’re in a situation where gates and live crowds can return in Las Vegas.”
The other race is one against time. Golovkin recently turned 38 and only has a few fights left in his career. The idea is that the fight needs to be made sooner than later in order to get the best out of Golovkin before Father Time has his way with the former unified middleweight champion.
“The Canelo fight is the absolute defining moment of Gennadiy’s career. He has to get that right. He has to win that fight,” Hearn said. “But there are obligations that are going to need to be taken care of but everybody needs to be moving in the right direction to provide the best (fights possible).”