Forget the fact that it is THE biggest and most sought after fight in all of boxing today, and forget the fact that the WBC have mandated the fight; Mexican star Saul Alvarez is seemingly asking feared puncher Gennady Golovkin to prove himself worthy of a shot at him! Speaking with Lance Pugmire of The LA Times, Canelo said the following:
“He needs to work his way up, he needs to earn his shot. He would have to fight somebody …. who has skill, somebody that brings it. Yes, he has all these knockouts, but who has he fought?”
Quite an amazing set of comments from Alvarez, I’m sure you’ll agree. Where to start? Firstly, the prestigious middleweight title Canelo currently holds – and defends against Amir Khan on Saturday – if he wants to hold onto it, Alvarez must face Golovkin next. Secondly, GGG, who holds the IBF, WBA and interim WBC middleweight titles has certainly “earned his shot” at Canelo. The fight is one that everyone wants to see, and Canelo is the first person to have the nerve to question the credentials of the fighter almost everyone in the sport feels would beat, probably even KO Canelo (Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum recently went as far as to call the fight “a massacre,” and he wasn’t worrying about GGG’s wellbeing).
Canelo has never questioned the credentials of Golovkin as far as a legit challenger to his title before; he has, though, said he himself is “not a middleweight,” and that he will fight Golovkin “in due course,” but not at full middleweight. Now, though, the Mexican fan favourite is surely at risk of losing some of his fans for making it abundantly clear in the opinion of nearly everyone who has read/will read his latest comments, that he simply is making any excuse he can to avoid the fight – again, THE biggest fight that cane be made today, in any weight class.
As for the gutsy Amir Khan (who, by the way, has done NOTHING to earn a shot at Canelo’s middleweight title – talk about double standards on the part of the Mexican), he has gone on record as saying he does not fear GGG and would “consider” defending against him if he were to upset Alvarez on Saturday. How crazy would it be if we did wind up seeing Golovkin-Khan and not Golovkin-Alvarez?!
How the boxing world turns.
