Tom Loeffler: Canelo Alvarez must face Gennady Golovkin at a full 160 or vacate

In an interview with Sky Sports, promoter Tom Loeffler says there will be no negotiating a middleweight title fight with Canelo Alvarez at his preferred weight of 155lbs or anything in between. They'll insist that Canelo face Golovkin at the full middleweight limit of 160lbs or force Canelo to vacate his WBC title.

"Canelo has just won the title, and they've said they want to make one defence before he fights Gennady to build up the fight. That's where we're at, right now. It's in the writing that Canelo fights Gennady or his status as champion will be vacated by the WBC," Loeffler told Sky Sports.

"What a lot of people don't realise is that Canelo actually fights heavier than Gennady. He'll walk into the ring at 175lbs even if he weighs in lower, so it's not a disadvantage for him to fight us at 160lbs."

This particular quote runs analogous to my oft-repeated statements that this idea that both Canelo and his promoter Oscar De La Hoya have been trying to peddle to the public -- that Canelo isn't yet a true middleweight -- is a load of crap. I felt particularly strong about that after seeing how massive he looked compared to Miguel Cotto during their title fight last November.

Now if Canelo just wants to enjoy the benefits of being the "A-side" and forcing opponents to fight him where he's most comfortable, fine. But to say he hasn't grown into the middleweight division is, at best, willfully disingenuous. So Loeffler is standing firm on their weight demands.

"In our particular instance against Canelo there wouldn't be any negotiations about the weight. It would be two middleweight champions fighting each other at 160lbs. Now if Canelo vacates the title and it becomes a voluntary fight down the road in 2017, then anything is negotiable - the money, location and weight.

"But under current circumstances he is mandated to defend his middleweight title. There's a 50 percent chance of it happening - they could give up the title because they don't want to fight Gennady, but Canelo is a proud warrior who didn't have to fight Austin Trout or Erislandy Lara so he's proven he's not afraid."

Since Team Golovkin has no intention of negotiating a catch weight for this fight, do you think Canelo concedes and takes the fight, or gives up the strap?