that Saul Canelo Alvarez and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions didn’t want him to fight on Cinco de Mayo on May 5. This was after Canelo had failed 2 drug tests for clenbuterol, which forced him to pull out of the fight. Golovkin wanted to stay on the May 5th Cinco de Mayo date despite the resistance that he was receiving for him staying on the date.
It’s unclear why they wouldn’t want Golovkin to stay on the 5th of May date, because having him on that date would only increase his popularity and make the eventual rematch with Canelo a lot bigger than it otherwise would be if he had stayed out of the ring for an entire year waiting on him. Canelo was given a six-month suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for being popped twice for clenbuterol. The suspension just recently expired this month on August 17.
Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) is facing Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) on the Mexican Independence Day holiday on September 15 on HBO PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight is on another holiday, and it’s the match that will prove to the boxing fans who the better fighter is between the two. As long as the judges don’t ruin the fight again like they did the previous one with their oddball scoring, we should have a winner in this contest.
”I was told that Canelo and his promoter did not want me to fight on Cinco De Mayo and that it could keep the rematch from happening,” Golovkin said. ”A lot of people tried to stop me from making a fight on Cinco De Mayo. I did not care about what they wanted. Keeping that fight on Cinco De Mayo was important to me, to the fans, and to the sport of boxing.”
The question is why Canelo and Golden Boy didn’t want Golovkin to fight earlier this year on Cinco de Mayo? Was it worry on their part that Golovkin could get injured or beaten in the fight and wreck their plans for the rematch or did they worry that Golovkin was going to increase his popularity to the point where he would be a latter threat to Canelo for the Mexican holiday dates that he now strictly fights on? Golovkin wasn’t going to give up the Cinco de Mayo date no matter how much they wanted him not to fight on that date.
”When it became clear Canelo would not be allowed to fight on May 5 because of his failed drug tests, my priority was to keep my fight on Cinco De Mayo,” Golovkin said. ”Cinco De Mayo is a huge date for boxing. It is a boxing holiday.”
Daniel Jacobs vs. Sergiy Derevyanchenko to be announced this Thursday in press conference
A press conference will be held this Thursday to announce the October 27th fight between Daniel Jacobs (34-2, 29 KOs) and Sergiy Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs) for the vacant International Boxing Federation title that was stripped from Gennady Golovkin by the IBF. Jacobs will be fighting Derevyanchenko, 32, on HBO World Championship Boxing at Madison Square Garden in New York. The winner of the Jacobs-Derevyanchenko fight has a good chance of facing the winner of the Golovkin vs. Saul Canelo Alvarez II fight down the road. It’s probably not going to happen right away though unless HBO pushes hard. Golovkin wants to face World Boxing Organization middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders if he’s victorious over Canelo on September 15. Golovkin wants the WBO title, and then he wants to swing back and scoop up the IBF title that was stripped from him by the sanctioning body. We’re likely looking at the second half of 2019 for Golovkin to face fight the Jacobs vs. Derevyanchenko winner for the IBF title if everything goes right. If Canelo beats Golovkin, then it’s unknown what his plan will be other than facing the winner of the David Lemieux vs. Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan fight. Canelo seems less ambitious than Golovkin when it comes to winning world titles at middleweight.
Jacobs, 31, hasn’t been doing much in terms of facing quality opposition since signing with Matchroom Boxing USA in 2017. In Jacobs’ two fights with British promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom, he’s beaten Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki. Derevyanchenko will be a big step up in class for Jacobs, and there’s no telling whether he’ll be able to hold up to the test. Jacobs almost lost to junior middleweight Sulecki last April in his second fight with Matchroom. It was an awful performance by Jacobs against the lighter punching Sulecki, and he was quite fortunate that he was able to knock the Polish fighter down in the 12th round. If not for the knockdown, Jacobs might have lost. He looked horrible in struggling against a guy that he should have been able to beat with ease if he was the real deal. Jacobs might get found out in this fight like he did in his loss to Golovkin. Derevyanchenko has a lot of punching power and he’s a clever fighter. He’s definitely a step up from Jacob’s last opponent Sulecki in terms of punching power. Jacobs is going to need to be able to stand his ground if he wants to beat Derevyanchenko, because if he runs from this guy, he’s not going to get the decision. That’s the sole reason Jacobs lost to Golovkin. He spent the first half of the fight on the run and not willing to stand and fight. By the time Jacobs started to fight back in the second half of the fight, he was too far behind to come back all the way to get the victory.
WBA super featherweight champion Alberto Machado is expected to be in the co-feature bout. That should make it interesting for a lot of boxing fans if the main event between Jacobs and Derevyanchenko turns out to be a disappointment. Machado is never involved in a boring fight. He’ll make his opponent brawl with him whether he wants to or not.