Canelo stripped of IBF title, Canelo-Andrade and Golovkin-Derevyanchenko in the works

I told myself I would stop writing about this whole debacle, but I just couldn’t stay away.

Remember all that progress Canelo Alvarez and Sergiy Derevyanchenko were making this morning? Didn’t quite work out. The two sides failed to come to an agreement by the extended 3:00 p.m. EST deadline, and the IBF has officially stripped Canelo of its middleweight title. According to ESPN, the dispute came down to money.

But like the hydra of yore, two more fights have sprung up from the enervated husk of Canelo-Derevyanchenko. As expected, all signs point to “The Technician” facing IBF #2 Gennadiy Golovkin for the vacant title, while WBO champion Demetrius Andrade has emerged as the frontrunner in the Canelo Sweepstakes.

I’m okay with this.

I’ve seen conflicting reports on just how close Derevyanchenko (13-1, 10 KO) vs. Golovkin (39-1-1, 35 KO) is to completion, but October 5th seems to be the consensus working date. I genuinely hope they pull it off; we didn’t really get a chance to see Golovkin’s adjustments under new trainer Jonathan Banks against Steve Rolls, and Derevyanchenko is more than good enough to make “GGG” dig deep for a victory.

Canelo (52-1-2, 35 KO) technically could have kept his IBF belt if he’d pursued unification with Andrade (28-0, 17 KO) earlier, but he and his team failed to do so in the sanctioning body’s designated timeframe. Even if Canelo’s “Franchise” title means this technically only unifies the WBA and WBO belts, though, it’s a great fight. Though he’s yet to really test his mettle against the division’s top dogs, “Boo Boo” ostensibly presents Canelo’s trickiest stylistic matchup at 160.

We’ll keep you posted as things continue to develop in this sitcom of a story.