Are We About To Get Canelo-GGG III?
After years of waiting, the world may finally see the trilogy bout between two of the best boxers out there today. A number of factors must come into play, but The Athletic is reporting that Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin are scheduled to face one another this September.
The trilogy fight would be scheduled for September 12 inside AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas. Promotional rights would go to Golden Boy and DAZN.
The first fight between the two took place in 2017 inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, after initial talks took place in 2015. This would be to decide the lineal middleweight champion. The bout ended in a split decision draw, which was considered controversial since Golovkin (40-1-1) outscored Alvarez (53-1-2), according to CompuBox. One of the most controversial scorings came from Adalaide Byrd, who scored it 118-110 for Canelo. The first fight drew 17,318 people with a gate of $27,059,850.
It took a while, including a failed drug test by Canelo, but the rematch was set. In September 2018, the two fought once again inside the T-Mobile Arena. There was a live gate of $23,473,500 from 16,732 tickets sold. It appeared that Golovkin out-landed Canelo once again according to Compubox, but Canelo won the bout via majority decision, 115-113, 115-113, 114-114.
Following the bout, Canelo signed a multi–year deal with DAZN, with GGG soon to follow. It was assumed that a third fight was to be made, but Canelo never agreed to the terms initially.
Since the Golovkin fights, Canelo has gone on a four-fight win streak. He beat Rocky Fielding for the WBA Super-Middleweight Titles to add to his WBA, WBC, The Ring and lineal Middleweight Titles he got from Golovkin. Canelo then beat Daniel Jacobs in convincing fashion in May for the IBF Middleweight Championship. Back in November, Canelo added the WBO Light-Heavyweight Title to his collection after beating Sergey Kovalev via KO after eleven. He gave up the belt shortly after to focus on the middleweight division.
Canelo has been tied to Billy Joe Saunders recently, with the two seemingly set to clash around the summer. Due to the coronavirus impacting sports all over the world, the fight was rumored to be moved to late August, early September. The fight would still be on, unless either the coronavirus continues to affect the date or if it was just passed by for the Golovkin fight.
Following the first Canelo fight, Golovkin beat Vanes Martirosyan. He then lost his middleweight titles to Canelo before rebounding against Steve Roles back in June. He then survived a war against Sergiy Derevyanchenko back in October for the IBF and IBO Middleweight Titles.
Reports are going around that Golovkin and Kamil Szeremeta are set to clash on June 6 in California. It is not as official like the Saunders-Canelo news has been. That could all change if the Canelo deal is in place.
Stay tuned for the latest updates regarding Canelo-GGG III.