Gennady Golovkin Not Waiting For Canelo Fight to Secure Legacy

Another Gennady Golovkin fight week is upon us and again the inevitable question is asked if Golovkin will ever come to blows with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a fight that would truly crown this generations premier fighter.

Never mind that he’s fighting Daniel Jacobs who, as a 5-1 underdog, is being touted as the toughest opponent he’s ever faced and that Alvarez is continuing his circus act against the biggest clown of them all in Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in a few months—the question remains When will they fight?

Of course, this mess all began organically being that Golovkin and Alvarez are practically contemporaries and they have practically shared the same road to prominence with each other, but things really didn’t heat up until Alvarez defeated Miguel Cotto for the WBC Middleweight title in November of 2015. The idea was that Alvarez was to face Golovkin, his mandatory, but instead trounced Amir Khan in a high-profile blowout while Golovkin dispatched of soon-to-be-incarcerated Dominic Wade. Canelo said he’d fight Golovkin, but then decided otherwise and gave up his belt as a leverage move to keep the high ground in any eventual contract negotiations.

Since that pivotal moment, the public at large have turned on Alvarez and the perceived notion that he’s ducking and dodging Golovkin like the plague. That is total bullshit, but the blame does fall on Team Canelo for essentially making him a pariah out of the whole situation. Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions cannot risk Alvarez when he makes up nearly 95% of their business. Alvarez takes a loss, or a string of them, and Golden Boy Promotions will be reduced to a regional promoter that has it good with the floundering HBO regime at this point.

Even though that is the case, there is also the train of thought that Golovkin is making things hard by not accepting the fact that he’ll never be the top bill against Canelo (which is true) and is making things hard by supposedly not entertaining what would be the biggest payday of his career (which is also true). Recently, Golovkin just gives off the impression that he’s had enough of Canelo and is not holding his breath anymore, and why should he?

Gennady Golovkin doesn’t need Canelo Alvarez.

Take a step back and look at how the situation presents itself: Golovkin has been touted by fans and media alike as some type of perfect fighting machine never before seen in the sport of boxing. People ooze over talking about him and he’s a “hero” for tearing apart a Middleweight division that is historically bad. Alvarez has been portayed as the asshole even though he absolutely is the bigger name and the only real star between the two of this.

The onus is going to fall on Canelo to either fight Golovkin or not, Golovkin can keep doing his thing and fighting whatever is left of the awful Middleweight class until he breaks Bernard Hopkins’ record of 20 defenses and people will erroneously label him the greatest Middleweight of all time. B-side fighters don’t feel the pressure if a big fight doesn’t get made, just lighter pockets and more nights of work to make up for it.

Up until the fight is announced and the bell actually rings, Golovkin has always had more to gain from Alvarez giving him the payday of his career than the other way around, but Alvarez isn’t going to get a pass of any kind unless he comprehensively and decisively beats Golovkin.

For the time being, we can only hope the fight does get made, but there’s no sweat off of Golovkin’s back one way or another.