By Miguel Rivera
Tom Loeffler, promoter of IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs), says his fighter is hungry to get back in the ring with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs).
The two boxers fought last month, to a controversial twelve round split draw at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
One judge scored it for Canelo with a tally of 118-110, and another saw it 115-113 for Golovkin, and then a 114-114 draw.
There are discussions taking place to stage a rematch for the Cinco De Mayo date of May 5.
Loeffler admits that Golovkin has several other possibilities - like a mandatory defense against Jermall Charlo or Sergiy Derevyachenko, or a unification with WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders, a rematch with Daniel Jacobs or even a fight at super middleweight with WBO champion Gilberto Ramirez.
But Golovkin is placing all of those other options to the side and ordered his team to get the Canelo deal done.
"Absolutely, it's the priority," said Loeffler. "Golden Boy Promotions would like to do it, HBO would like to do it; Golden Boy will talk to Canelo. The fans want to see it again, it was a successful event, they both gave everything in the ring and they both want the fight."
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman, despite the bad blood with Canelo, is pushing for the contest to happen. His organization ordered the rematch last week - and that order gives Golovkin additional time to satisfy the mandatory obligation to Charlo.
"It is the fight that the world wants to see, it is the fight that the two fighters want to have, they have expressed it publicly and that is why we have made the decision [to order the rematch], to give the world the fight that we want," said Sulaiman.
"That fight reminded me of Carlos Monzón with Nino Benvenuti, Azumah Nelson-Jeff Fenech, Michael Spinks-Larry Holmes, Erik Morales-Marco Barrera and many other great moments in the history of the WBC."
2023-10-19 17:15:30
