Boxing ribs Camp ‘Canelo’ about Golovkin fight
As San Diego-trained boxer Alvarez prepares for title bout, more anticipated fight looms
There’s an unrivaled beauty to boxing. No, not the part where two fighters step into a ring and try to jack-hammer rib cages into submission and relocate an incisor or two.
It’s the art of the arm-twisting; the game rooted in the gab.
Question someone’s heart. Question their integrity. Question their resume. Question the brand of corn flakes they spooned through that morning. Poke and prod and pester.
That’s boxing.
No sport owns such a rich ribbing history, where the verbal jabs routinely land long before the physical ones. Right now, there’s no Theater of the Taunt more riveting than Canelo and Golovkin.
San Diego-trained ‘Canelo’ defends title
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is preparing to fight England’s Amir Khan for the WBC, “Ring” magazine and lineal middleweight world championships.
- When, where: May 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas
- Records: Alvarez is 46-1-1 with 32 KOs; Khan is 31-3, 19 KOs
- To watch: Available on HBO pay-per-view, with the undercard scheduled to start at 6 p.m. PT.
Canelo is Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, the 25-year-old WBC middleweight champion preparing to face England’s Amir Khan on May 7 in an HBO pay-per-view fight at freshly minted T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Golovkin is Gennady Golovkin, the unbeaten 34-year-old from Kazakhstan who owns a few middleweight belts of his own, courtesy of the WBA, IBF and a powerful and precise set of fists.
The short of it: Golovkin wants to fight Alvarez, while Canelo promoter and boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya preaches patience.
The result? Well, lean in for a listen …
“Everyone says Canelo is a great champion, the idol of Mexico,” Golovkin recently told the Los Angeles Times. “The idol for what? For boxing? No. Or as a businessman? Right now, he looks like a businessman.”
On Monday at San Diego’s House of Boxing, during a media day event in advance of the Khan fight, I pressed Alvarez on Golovkin’s comments.
“I’ve fought all the best fighters in the world, top champions, ex-champions,” said the locally trained Alvarez. “I don’t see him fighting any of the champions, so he shouldn’t be talking.”
View the photo gallery: Boxer Canelo Alvarez
De La Hoya, the founder and face behind Golden Boy Promotions, is keenly aware of those in the sport clamoring for the fight-that-isn’t. He’s attuned to the stories on ESPN.com and elsewhere that challenge the delay.
“Hey, look. Golovkin is obviously going to use every angle he can to lure Canelo in,” De La Hoya, himself a 10-time world champion, said of his boxer’s 46-1-1 record with the sole loss to unbeaten Floyd Mayweather. “I’m a professional in this game. I’m a veteran in this game. I’ve heard that talk before.
“It’s my obligation as a promoter to make sure the Golovkin-Canelo — (stopping himself to adjust promotional spin) or the Canelo-Golovkin fight — is as big as it can be.
“Just like (Manny) Pacquiao-(Floyd) Mayweather. Does it mean I’m going to wait another two, three or four years? No. This fight will happen sooner than later.”
And yet, the matchup De La Hoya labeled this week as “the next super fight in boxing” remains unscheduled. For Camp Golovkin, unscheduled equates to irksomely unsettling.
Golovkin sits 35-0 with 32 knockouts after tomato-canning Dominic Wade on Saturday in front of more than 16,000 at The Forum in Inglewood. Post-fight, the hunter resumed the hunt according to ESPN’s Dan Rafael: “I’m not going anywhere. … Give me my belt! Let’s fight.”
If Alvarez’s upcoming bout with Khan is successful, the WBC mandates his representatives begin negotiating with Golovkin inside of 15 days. De La Hoya promised that would happen.
“Absolutely,” he said. “We’re absolutely, 100 percent going to work with whoever necessary to come out with a conclusion.”
If the fight fails to materialize, Alvarez could be stripped of his WBC belt. Would Alvarez would be willing to risk that?
“No, I don’t believe he would,” De La Hoya said.
Alvarez plans to fight two more times in 2016, De La Hoya said — in September and December.
An intriguing subplot formed when De La Hoya confirmed discussions with NFL owner Jerry Jones to hold an Alvarez fight at the Cowboys’ enormous AT&T Stadium. That could come in the form of Alvarez and Golovkin.
De La Hoya said if Alvarez wins, he intends to fly to Dallas on May 8 to meet with Jones about a potential mega-fight in a mega-location. The promoter fully understands that boxing’s tussles with MMA and UFC means reconnecting with mainstream American through that type of partnership could be enormous.
Enough about all of that, though. Back to brushing off Golovkin comments.
De La Hoya argued that Alvarez, at his age, has faced a parade of current and former champions — including Mayweather, “Sugar” Shane Mosley, James Kirkland, Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout.
“Canelo has never avoided anybody,” De La Hoya said. “Who has Golovkin faced? Name me two champions Golovkin has faced in the last 10 fights? Nobody.”
The L.A. Times quoted iconic promoter Bob Arum as saying De La Hoya’s decisions could amount to gamesmanship in hopes Golovkin loses or ages because, “ ‘Canelo’ is good, but ‘Triple-G’ (Golovkin) with ‘Canelo’ is a massacre.”
Punch. Counter-punch.
So, the teeth gnashing continues. And De La Hoya, without saying it, must be thrilled. All the jawing and debate means more people are talking about the potential fight in invested, emotional ways. Arum loves to tab the stoking-anticipation process as “marinating.”
“He loves marinating fights,” De La Hoya said. “I like my fights to be a little medium-rare.”
He smiled. He knew it was a clever line.
That’s boxing.
On Twitter: @Bryce_A_Miller
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