Boxing promoters always make sure they have a Plan-B at hand, and Golden Boy has one for this coming September. This is the month, every fight fan knows, when stars Canelo Alvarez (the A-side as far as pulling power goes) and Gennady Golovkin (the B-side but the world champion) have verbally agreed to meet in arguably the biggest non-heavyweight fight that can be made today.
Still, there is no shortage of cynicism out there; with plenty of people having a fingers crossed, ‘I’ll believe it when they’re in the ring attitude.’ Both fighters insist they want the fight, and with Canelo recently stating how he will stay at middleweight after his 164.5 pound catch-weight fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, there really is no reason the fight shouldn’t happen (unless of course Chavez Jr. pulls off the big upset on May 6 – something that cannot be ruled out).
But, “If for whatever reason that fight doesn’t happen, David [Lemieux] would be in line [to face Canelo in September].” These were the words of Golden Boy’s Eric Gomez as he spoke on a conference call yesterday (as quoted by RingTV.com).
Gomez said that as exciting as Canadian power-puncher Lemieux is, “he’s good for any fight.”
“His knockouts are incredible,” Gomez said of the former IBF middleweight champ. “So, it’s something that we’ve talked about. It’s something that I know David wants. It’s something that Canelo is interested in as well. I think immediately next, Canelo wants to fight Golovkin. He’s made that very clear to everybody. Canelo said it. We’ve said it. Golovkin said he wants that fight. We continue to negotiate for that fight. But, if for whatever reason that fight doesn’t happen, yes, David would be in line.”
Looking at it as a stand alone fight, Canelo Vs. Lemiuex is not in any way a bad fight. In fact it’s a potentially thrilling one. The problem is, it would come as a sort of consolation prize, a replacement fight for the big one we all both want and deserve to see.
If Canelo wins in style over Chavez (Lemiuex also in action on the card, against Marcos Reyes) and then winds up facing Lemieux next and not GGG, what would the fan reaction be? We might find out.
