Canelo knocked out Amir Khan in the 6th round last month (Getty)
There was some big news in the boxing world Wednesday, as two of the sport’s most entertaining fighters in Saúl “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin have agreed to a fight according to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports. The agreement is good news for fight fans who have been clamoring for this matchup for quite some time, but what isn’t good news is when they’ll actually fight each other.
Per Iole’s report the fight won’t take place until September 2017, meaning that fans will have to wait more than a year for something that’s been in high demand.
Golden Boy Promotions, which is run by former world champion boxer Oscar de la Hoya and represents Alvarez, and K2 Promotions, which represents Golovkin and is led by Tom Loeffler, agreed to terms on the fight. According to the report the reasoning behind the delay was to not only get Alvarez used to fighting at middleweight (160 pounds), but to also establish Golovkin as more of a household name than he currently is.
Golovkin took care of Dominic Wade in late April to move to 35-0 (Getty)
Alvarez fought at 155 pounds in each of his last two fights, wins over Miguel Cotto and Amir Khan, which is the heaviest his fought at in his career (not counting the weight gained after the official weigh-in), while Golovkin fights at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds.
Alvarez has a record of 47 wins and just one defeat, with 33 of those wins coming by way of knockout, and Golovkin has not lost any of his 35 professional fights with 32 knockouts.
In his interview following the convincing win over Khan, Alvarez challenged Golovkin and stated that he was ready to fight him then. However shortly after that fight Alvarez vacated his WBC middleweight title, as the organization mandated that he fight Golovkin next. As a result of Alvarez’s decision the WBC gave the then-vacant title to Golovkin.