The most anticipated fight in all of boxing- the middleweight clash between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Gennady "GGG" Golovkin may be forged a year too late.
If the WBC had its way, it should have happened last May but there were still arguments on the catch-weight and it was moved to September of this year.
However, as Canelo's camp failed to meet the deadline for negotiating with Golovkin's camp, the Mexican champion decided to give up the belt.
Now, the fight is in limbo but apparently, both sides are still negotiating as Dan Rafael of ESPN reported.
"Eric Gomez, vice president of Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Alvarez, and Tom Loeffler, managing director of K2 Promotions, Golovkin's promoter, met Monday at Golden Boy's office in Los Angeles and agreed to put off the fight until late next year," Rafael reported.
Golovkin's camp wanted it last May, in his effort to unite all the middleweight belts. However, Canelo and Golden Boy cited two reasons for the year-long delay:
"to make it commercially bigger, and to give Alvarez a chance to build himself up to the middleweight limit of 160 pounds so he can have at least one fight at that weight before facing Golovkin."
The two sides would not see eye to eye on Alvarez' insistence to fight GGG on a catch-weight of 155 lbs-even though the official middleweight division is at 160 lbs. With this announcement, it is implied that Alvarez will agree to fight at that weight.
Loeffler accepts the reality of boxing and encourages fans to do the same. "I believe that Canelo wants to fight Gennady. I don't think he is afraid of Gennady, but I think Golden Boy wants to build up the fight, and the time also gives Canelo time to get to 160 pounds," Loeffler said. "We can jump up and down all we want, but it won't help us get the deal. We have to focus on continuing to build Gennady. The bigger we can make Gennady, the bigger we can make that fight with Canelo, as long as we have to wait."
In the meantime, K2 has moved on to set GGG's next fight, possibly Chris Eubank, Jr. who successfully defended his British middleweight title against Tom Doran via fourth round knockout.
Eubank's father, Chris Sr, himself a champion in the 90s, is managing the negotiations himself, according to The Daily Mail. The report claims that GGG has already agreed to fight "in London in the autumn."