Plans for May 5 Golovkin fight without Canelo moving forward

With Canelo Alvarez facing a possible long-term suspension for doping violations, which will be decided at an April hearing with the Nevada Athletic Commission, Gennady Golovkin’s team is planning for the chance that the May 5 rematch between Alvarez and Golovkin won’t happen.

According to ESPN, a Golovkin fight on May 5 would likely stay on HBO pay-per-view, even though the fight would not be a pay-per-view attraction type of bout, or at least certainly not on the level of Canelo-GGG II.

But the fight would also move from T-Mobile Arena to the smaller MGM Grand, and ticket prices for those attending live would be adjusted to fit the bill.

Right now, there’s no opponent lined up in the event that the bigger fight is canceled. But candidates mentioned have included Billy Joe Saunders, Demetrius Andrade, Spike O’Sullivan, and Sergiy Derevyanchenko, who is Golovkin’s IBF mandatory, and whose lawyer sent a letter to the IBF asking that the fight be immediately ordered in the event the Canelo fight is scrapped. Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler said he’s had no contact with Derevyanchenko’s people.

Top Rank has also offered Gilberto Ramirez, a super middleweight titleholder, who would defend his title with Golovkin moving up, as unlikely as that is at the moment.

At this point, the most likely scenario seems to be Golovkin will fight Spike O’Sullivan on May 5 should the Canelo fight not go through. That could change quickly, because all of this is being thrown together with just weeks of notice, really, and we don’t even know yet if Canelo can fight on May 5 or not.