Things are becoming increasingly clear that a much-demanded fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin won't be happening anytime soon. After Canelo Alvarez sparked Amir Khan he essentially told the world in his post-fight interview that he would fight Golovkin anytime. He soon thereafter vacated his middleweight title instead -- an interesting juxtaposition.
Alvarez and his Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya dropped the WBC title under the guise of not being rushed into a deal by the WBC's artificial deadline (which was today), but the fact is that since Canelo vacated the belt there's been no negotiating at all.
"I can confirm that nothing has been forthcoming from Golden Boy since they informed the WBC of their decision," Loeffler exclusively told World Boxing News.
"We are still hopeful that the fight with Canelo can be made and are open to continuing the discussions as soon as Golden Boy are ready and willing to do so."
The glaring reality here is that Golden Boy, and perhaps Alvarez himself, do not want to face Golovkin right now while they have a good thing going. Sure, on the surface they complained about the WBC's 15-day deadline to come to terms with GGG, but really these talks were many months in the making, with Golden Boy even negotiating an interim fight for Canelo (the Khan fight) when Golovkin was ready to go straight away. And if Canelo/GB were really ever intent on facing Golovkin next, it doesn't stand to reason that they would willingly vacate the title just to buy a little more time. Needless to say, any excuse about an "artificial deadline" rings hollow.
Meanwhile, Golovkin, 34, isn't getting any younger, but now holds WBC, WBA, IBO, and IBF titles - leaving him one belt shy of unifying five titles. The last remaining titleholder is Billy Joe Saunders who holds the WBO belt. Unfortunately, Saunders has already rejected an offer to unify with Golovkin in the recent past and probably isn't much more enthusiastic about the prospect now.
So if Canelo bails on a GGG fight -- and all signs point to that as having already happened -- Golovkin will have to try his darnedest to get Saunders to come to the table otherwise he'll be ordered to face Daniel Jacobs as his WBA mandatory challenger. But who even knows if Jacobs wants to take that fight. He rarely, if ever, mentions Golovkin's name and talk of waiting until Jacobs and Golovkin are both proven PPV attractions doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Ultimately, finding legitimate and compelling opponents for Golovkin is proving to be one of the toughest jobs in the business, and I certainly don't envy being in Tom Loeffler's position right now.