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Promoter Tom Loeffler will actively pursue Golden Boy to turn a verbal agreement for Canelo Alvarez to face Gennady Golovkin late next year into something more tangible -- like a written contract. There's no doubt that most fans were displeased with the news that the highly anticipated fight will be pushed back for more than a year at Golden Boy's behest, but Loeffler would at least like to get a firm commitment from Canelo's team. Here's what he had to say to RingTV.com:
"We have to have something in writing," Loeffler told RingTV.com on Thursday. "I think that's the next step for it to be realistic is to have a binding agreement. They made it clear it wouldn't be in September of this year so we're looking at September of next year. If we're going to base Gennady's schedule around fighting Canelo next year, we're going to have to have some firm commitment."
Now that we know Canelo won't be fighting Golovkin in the near future, Loeffler is expecting to finalize a deal for Golovkin to face Chris Eubank Jr. in September so long as Eubank Jr. beats Tom Doran this weekend. The way things are looking, that fight will be made in short order should everything go right for Eubank Jr. tomorrow.
Aside from that, Golovkin expects to fight twice more this year, and twice in 2017 before, hopefully, facing Canelo Alvarez in September 2017. Loeffler had reached out to WBO titlist Billy Joe Saunders when it became clear that Canelo's side wouldn't agree to an upcoming fight, but for Loeffler it's clear that Saunders has no intention of facing Golovkin this year either.
"For as much as Saunders says that he wants to fight Gennady, the way those negotiations went it was pretty clear he wants no part of Gennady," Loeffler said. "And that's ok. If he wants to keep the title and make small title defenses, that's ok. If you want to prove that you are a world champion and at the top of the division, there's a different way to go about that."
Loeffler finishes by stating that he's still optimistic that the big Canelo-GGG fight will come off eventually, but said had it been up to them, the fight would be happening much sooner.