Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) will be back inside the ring in the first quarter of 2019 against possibly WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion Rob Brant (24-1, 16 KOs), according to GGG’s trainer Abel Sanchez. He says Golovkin has four titles he can go after, and he feels that the 28-year-old Brant is an interesting match for him.
Brant is a good fight for GGG to fight in early 2019. It could be a tough fight if Golovkin doesn’t stand his ground against Brant. GGG can’t afford to back up against Brant the way he did with Canelo last September.
Sanchez’s preference is for Golovkin, 36, to face Saul Canelo Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) in a trilogy fight, but he doesn’t see that fight happening in May of 2019. Sanchez’s best hope is for Canelo and Golovkin meeting up with each other in a trilogy fight in September 2019. Although Bernard Hopkins and Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions believes Canelo has a lot of options, Sanchez disagrees. He only sees Golovkin as a fight that the boxing public is interested. Sanchez says it’s imperative that Canelo fight only the big fights because he just received a big $365 million contract with DAZN, and he feels that they’re not going to give him that kind of money if he doesn’t bring in the subscribers. If it’s true that Canelo’s five-year contract with DAZN isn’t guaranteed, then they could potentially bail if he’s not bringing in the subscribers. Golden Boy’s decision to match Canelo against little known WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding is getting the Mexican star off to the wrong foot with DAZN. If Canelo wants to fight at 168, he should be fighting the perceived best fighter in the division rather than guy that is seen as the weakest of the champions in the super middleweight division.
“We’ll fight in the first quarter of next year,” Sanchez said to Behind The Gloves. “The kid [Rob Brant] that just beat [Ryota] Murata. He’s got a title, and then at the end of next year, Tom [Loeffler] and Golden Boy can get together and then maybe they can do it a year later. Gennady has some fights out there. There’s four titles, but they [Canelo and Gennady] need each other for the public. The public is going to demand that kind of fight. We’ll see how Canelo does with the [Rocky] Fielding fight. If he does limited numbers, then it’s going to show you that he’s not the box office that they think he is,” Sanchez.
Canelo fighting a little known fighter like Fielding is a good way to hurt his popularity with the boxing public. It’s a fight that rivals Canelo’s blundering decision to face WBO junor middleweight champion Liam ‘Beefy’ Smith in 2016 rather than defend against his WBC mandatory challenger GGG at the time. De La Hoya said at the time that Canelo wanted to move down to 154 because he hadn’t grown into the middleweight division at the time. At the time, Canelo was rumored to be rehydrating into the 170s, which would put him at around the same rehydrated weight as Golovkin. The choice for Canelo to fight Liam Smith rather than Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo or Erislandy Lara was because De La Hoya said that he felt he was the best fighter in the 154 lb weight class.
Canelo is supposed to be moving back down to 160 to defend his WBC middleweight title in early 2019 after he faces Fielding. There’s no hints being given by Golden Boy Promotions who Canelo will be fighting in May of 2019, but having David Lemieux on the December 15 undercard is a big hint that he’ll be the guy that he’ll be facing him on May 4. Canelo, 28, isn’t expected to fight interim WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo.
The World Boxing Council hasn’t ordered Canelo to fight Charlo and they’re not expected to for fear of him vacating their belt. Canelo vacated his WBC middleweight title in 2016 when the sanctioning body made the mistake of ordering him to defend against GGG, and he wasn’t interested in doing it.
The WBC likely won’t order Canelo to fight Charlo anytime soon if ever. It puts Charlo in a tough spot, because he wants a title shot against Canelo that may never happen. WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson is only now about to defend against his mandatory challenger for only the second time in five years. If the WBC uses the same time pattern for Canelo, then his next defense against a mandatory won’t take place until 2023.
Brant looked sensational in beating Murata by a 12 round decision last month in Las Vegas, Nevada. Brant won the fight by the scores 118-110, 119-109 and 119-109.
Sanchez says GGG isn’t too bothered about him losing a controversial 12 round majority decision to Canelo in their rematch on September 15 in Las Vegas. Sanchez says Golovkin knows how the business side of things works in the sports in terms of the A-side fighters getting the nod by the judges on a frequent basis.
“He understands the business of boxing,” Abel Sanchez said about Golovkin. “He knows he didn’t lose. He may know he didn’t get the decision, but he knows he didn’t lose. I think Canelo is catching the wrath for that. He’s definitely not going to retire,” Sanchez said about the 36-year-old GGG. “He’s too good of a fighter to let things go right now,” said Sanchez. “He’s the best middleweight in the world right now, and he’s going to prove it.”
It’s unclear whether Golovkin will get a third fight against Alvarez. A lot of boxing fans believe that Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions are ducking Golovkin for a third fight. They think that Canelo realizes that he’s going to run out of luck when it comes to the judging for the third fight against GGG, because it won’t likely take place in Las Vegas. Canelo being pulled away from his favorite city of Las Vegas for fighting, it could be a disaster for him if he faces GGG a third time in somewhere else like New York. Canelo isn’t the type to walk away from a loss. So if he loses to GGG in New York, then he’ll look to fight him a fourth time. It would look incredibly bad on Canelo’s part if he and his promoters insist on taking the fight back to Las Vegas for a fourth fight, as it would make a lot of boxing fans think that he can’t beat GGG anyplace other than that state.
Sanchez says there’s a chance that GGG could eventually move up to 168 after he exhausts all the important fights at super middleweight. Sanchez does out that Golovkin is a natural middleweight, and not a super middleweight in terms of weight.
“He [GGG] walks around at 170, so 160 is his decision,” Sanchez said.“I would like to see him go another run and make some history some more and then maybe move to 168. If its something we all agree on, then definitely Gennady will take that fight,” Sanchez said.
“With the DAZN deal, they’ve got numbers, but realistically they have to provide before these numbers become reality,” Sanchez said. “They’re NOT going to give him the money if he doesn’t draw, so it’s a matter of seeing how they do in their next fight,” Sanchez said.
The way that Sanchez describes Canelo’s five-year deal with DAZN, it sounds like he’s going to need to produce numbers if he wants to get to the end of the deal. If that’s indeed the case, then Canelo is making a tremendous mistake by going after a weak-link champion like Rocky Fielding at 168 rather than the best champion. Likewise, it would be a terrible idea if Canelo returns to the middleweight division and immediately faces Lemieux rather than Golovkin, Charlo, Demetrius Andrade or Daniel Jacobs. There’s talk that Jacobs could be the guy that Canelo faces in May. that’s at least a fight that will attract interested from the fan, but you can’t say the same about a lot of the weak contenders in the division. It would be a bad idea for Canelo to try and milk his 11-fight contract if it’s not guaranteed. Sanchez sounds like he thinks it’s not a guaranteed deal, which is a bad thing for Canelo. He’ll need to produce ratings and bring in subscribers, and you don’t do that by fighting guys the U.S boxing fans have never heard of like Rocky Fielding.
“The way [Demetrius] Andrade looked, it’s going to be difficult to get anyone interested in that fight,” Sanchez said. “He’s a very talented guy, but he does just enough to win. His last fight left a lot of questions unanswered. He’s a good fighter, but what does anyone have to gain by fighting,” Sanchez said in ruling out a fight between Golovkin and Andrade.
It won’t be a big deal if Golovkin doesn’t fight WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade, because he lacks the popularity to interest the boxing public. Maybe if Andrade picks up a fan base in the future, he could be an option for GGG, but not right now. It didn’t help Andrade that he was running around the ring in the last six rounds in his recent fight against Walter Kautondokwa last October in their fight for the vacant World Boxing Organization middleweight title on DAZN.
Sanchez say there’s no interest in Golovkin vs. Jermall Charlo on their part, because the Al Haymon managed fighter doesn’t bring anything to the table in terms of popularity.
“Charlo. Unless your a champion and someone orders a mandatory, then yes, but what does he bring to the table? Charlo continues to be idle. Who’s his next fight? Willie Monroe?” Sanchez said.
Charlo fighting Willie Monroe Jr. is clearly a case of him going in the wrong direction. Haymon needs to be matching Charlo against better fighters like Daniel Jacobs, Canelo and Andrade.