Will Gennadiy Golovkin have a third fight with Canelo?

Gennadiy Golovkin made his return to the ring last night on DAZN, carrying Steve Rolls in the fourth round of what has resulted in a predictable affair, a development aimed at occupying GGG and preparing it for a bigger fight this fall .

So what is next for the Kazakh star?

Canelo Alvarez

The obvious fight, the one Golovkin wants, is a third encounter with Canelo Alvarez. He fought 0-1-1 against his Mexican rival. He drew with Canelo in 2017 and lost a majority decision last September.

Their story is long and long, it involves more than the 24 rounds they shared in the ring. It started well before they really fought, with fans wanting to see him a long time before that happened, and Alvarez did not dodge It's so much like waiting for him and Golden Boy to know that the time was right a few years ago. At one point, Alvarez dropped the WBC middleweight title so he did not have to fight against GGG. You can call it a duck, but he ended up fighting it twice, so I think a more diplomatic term – "avoided" – is better. But it's me. Shout about Canelo if you want, I guess.

And then, after being beaten once, they had to be the subject of an immediate return match in May 2018. Alvarez was canceled because the VADA tests for Clenbuterol failed. Everyone finally accepted his explanation that it was contaminated Mexican beef. Before the fight could be properly canceled, Canelo was nobly out of date and GGG attacked Vanes Martirosyan instead.

Then there was the bargaining period to get the rematch for September 2018. If you do not remember it, it was not easy. The failure of the drug test and the cancellation of the original date was a big problem to reunite them again. At one point, it really seemed like it would not happen, so much so that Billy Joe Saunders, then the middleweight title holder, canceled a meeting with Martin Murray in the hope of attracting one of them for a financial fight. They did it at the 11th hour, fought again and another full fight was not enough to erase any controversy.

I have seen a few people in and around the sport, whatever their motives or prejudices, claiming that GGG is the only one to want to attend a third fight with Alvarez in September. This is absolute horseshit, of course.

Since Mayweather-Pacquiao in 2015, there have been 19 major boxing movies in the United States. Four met or exceeded one million purchases: Canelo-Chavez, Mayweather-McGregor and the two Canelo-Golovkin fights. Aside from the Floyd-Conor circus / circus, the two biggest pay-per-view channels since Mayweather-Pacquiao boxing are the Canelo-GGG fights.

Image of Al Bello / Getty Images

They fought 24 rounds and there are again a lot of debate about who is really better. Alvarez is 1-0-1, and many people think that GGG should be 2-0. They are still from afar The two biggest stars of the middleweight category, considered by all as the two best fighters at 160 – I guess, WBO said – are two of the biggest stars in boxing, period at the time.

And no matter which games Oscar De La Hoya wants to play on Twitter, it's no longer 2017 or 2018 either. What I mean by that is that despite the #Caneloisyourboss hashtag from De La Hoya, the reality for both sides is that DAZN is the boss now. DAZN pays Canelo a huge guarantee for every fight. DAZN also pays a lot of money to GGG. And, from all points of view, DAZN wants this fight in September, and they should. The company is still trying to gain ground in the US market and the biggest domestic producer they can currently fight is Canelo vs. GGG III. If you combine this in September with the Ruiz-Joshua return match in November / December, you get a nice third third of the year for the company to try to sell subscriptions.

But as I said earlier, it could all be because De La Hoya knew the Internet well and was injecting some juice into an evening that, frankly, was not an extremely spectacular event, which did not arouse really not the public interest. Whatever the case may be, by launching an obviously controversial tweet, Oscar has launched more discussions than GGG clubbing could have done alone.

Some will even say – some of you have done it last night in post-fight commentary – that now is the time for Canelo to face Golovkin again. GGG is 37 years old, he slows down like everyone else and has taken net shots against Rolls. Golovkin will not be better than he was in 2017 or 2018. He has just had a long enough break from the ring, he is working with a new coach. It might be ripe for Alvarez, 28, to beat definitively this time.

There would be something to quibble about. Not the salary or anything, that's what it's going to be, they both have guaranteed contracts, but the location would be a big problem. Golovkin and Co. will certainly not want the fight in Las Vegas. New York might be fine. Los Angeles or Texas may be suitable.

But let's say that if nothing else, the Canelo and GGG camps come to some sort of agreement to wait for the Cinco De Mayo weekend in 2020. What else could there be for Golovkin? ?

Other options

What's left at GGG would be reduced to what Canelo could do instead.

If Canelo decides to go to 168 and run a risky fight with super-middleweight giant Callum Smith – where there is smoke, there is usually fire in boxing, and this confrontation has smoke – then GGG could potentially fight the winner of the fight between Demetrius Andrade on June 29 and Maciej Sulecki for the WBO middleweight title of Andrade.

Photo of Sarah Stier / Getty Images

If Golovkin were to win the WBO middleweight title, a third fight with Alvarez would have even more luck, a complete unification of the division. Even if Canelo lost to Smith at 168, he would still have his 160 belts. The fight between Canelo-GGG would take a shot, but not so much that the public would lose interest.

But what if Canelo fights winner Andrade-Sulecki for a complete unification in September?

It's harder to understand for Golovkin. He has already beaten Daniel Jacobs, and Jacobs should climb himself to 168. Jermall Charlo is there, but Charlo is with PBC and an agreement will not be easily reached. It's not impossible or anything. In addition, Charlo has the provisional title of WBC, and he might prefer to stay on that and wait for a possible sanctioning body's order to face Alvarez.

Without Canelo, neither Andrade / Sulecki, nor Charlo, nor Jacobs, 160 is not interesting for GGG, and there is a good chance that you see him taking another type of focus in the meantime, closer of Rolls that anyone would prefer. Even looking at potentially elevating someone from 154 does not lead to much – most of the best fighters are with PBC, and it's not as if Golden Boy would like to feed Jaime Munguia to Golovkin. They will at least feed Munguia to Canelo.

I will not be shocked if we do not have it or if things are delayed until next May, but I still think that the third bout of Canelo-GGG in September is the direction the situation is taking. This is the fight that makes the most sense for the people who pay the money. From that moment, it's the most logical thing. I know that Canelo wants to join with 160, but maybe we'll have to wait until 2020.

If this is not the case, then everyone will guess the next Golovkin fight, at least if Canelo faces the winner Andrade-Sulecki in September.