Should Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin Bother with Interim Fights?
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Mexican sensation and holder of the lineal and WBC Middleweight Championships, and Gennady Golovkin, a fearsome puncher who carries the IBF. WBA and interim WBC Middleweight Championships appear on a collision course for a superfight later in the year.
Representatives for both fighters came to an agreement earlier this year that will allow each pound-for-pound star to take an interim bout in the spring that would (hopefully, but not definitively) pave the way for a contest with all the middleweight marbles that matter on the line.
That sounded like a good idea—it’s sometimes better to let a big fight percolate just a bit and build anticipation—but, given the complete lack of attractive, marketable options for both fighters, you have to wonder if it’s just a waste of time.
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Golovkin will be up first.
He’s scheduled to return April 23 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, the site he sold out in bludgeoning David Lemieux to add another shiny belt to his growing collection, but an opponent hasn’t yet been selected.
Some boxing fans are hoping for a unification clash with newly minted WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, but the Brit seems to have seen the error of his ways and/or decided a fight with GGG wasn’t the best self-preservation plan.
Per Nick Parkinson of ESPN.com, Saunders will only agree to the fight if Golovkin’s team is willing to up his financial take above what Lemieux made or move the fight across the pond to England.
Never say never, but also don’t hold your breath.
Saunders isn’t near ready for that type of hell, something the fighter said himself shortly after winning his belt from Andy Lee in a real stinker, per Chris McKenna of the Daily Star (h/t Boxing Scene).
Golovkin is far more likely to find himself in there with Tureano Johnson, who currently holds the position of mandatory challenger for the IBF’s version of the 160-pound title.
Johnson is a solid pro with some real gusto about him.
He tells anyone who will listen that he won’t bow down to Golovkin’s reputation or suffer from the chills up his spinal column that seem to have scared many middleweight fighters away.
The 31-year-old Bahamian, he of the 19-1 record with 13 knockouts, was robbed in his lone defeat by a questionable (at best) stoppage in the final minute of a fight he seemed to be winning on the scorecards against Curtis Stevens in 2014.
Johnson is a gamer, and he’ll come to fight without intimidation, but he’s less than a household name and his ability to provide requisite intrigue to fill up MSG is suspect.
Canelo’s cupboard seems, if anything, even more bare than Golovkin’s.
The cinnamon-haired superstar, as sure a throwback fighter as we have in the sport today, took a deserved decision from Miguel Cotto in November to strike his name in the annals of Mexico vs. Puerto Rico rivalry and secure the recognized (if not people’s) middleweight crown.
He’s penciled in for a return on HBO pay-per-view May 7 (just after Cinco de Mayo) and will continue to build his already large and growing star by giving Mexican fight fans a big fight on what’s traditionally a big-fight weekend.
But the names that have been mentioned are anything but “big fight,” and HBO will be taking a substantial risk featuring either on PPV, relying entirely on Canelo to sling the whole production on his back and make people part with their cash.
Mike Coppinger of USA Today reports that the two names floating around are two prior GGG knockout victims without a ton of their own cache.
Boxcino middleweight tournament champion Willie Monroe Jr. (a crafty southpaw who fell victim to Golovkin in a spirited fight but hasn’t competed since) and nine-loss Gabriel Rosado are the two most likely names to land the assignment.
Monroe gave Golovkin some struggles in a few of the six rounds they boxed last year, but he was heavily criticized as a foe coming into that fight as hasn’t laced them up since. Still, he makes for an intriguing style match (deserving of another shot) and is easily the better of the two options.
Rosado is a rugged, tough-as-nails Philadelphian, but it’s virtually impossible to sell him as a realistic threat on PPV. His nine losses would be forgivable (there’s a lot of quality names on his ledger) if he weren’t coming in having won just one of his last six fights.
That includes a decision win over Joshua Clottey, in his most recent fight, and noncompetitive losses to Lemieux, Jermell Charlo, Peter Quillin and Golovkin, which make credibility a real problem.
With options like these, right?
The chances of skipping over fights, including two of the biggest names in the sport, are virtually nil, but, short of getting in some ring work and maybe a slight uptick in demand for an already in-demand fight, neither guy has much to gain or prove.
Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites.
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