The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of May 22
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
The boxing world is buzzing over Canelo Alvarez's decision to drop his WBC Middleweight Championship to avoid a deadline in negotiations for a fight with Gennady Golovkin, or at least that's the now-former champ's story.
We will look at all the moving parts and determine if Canelo quacks after much tough talk.
Next, we look at some potentially attractive foes for GGG, should Canelo not agree to face him in the fall.
Those are the major stories dominating the sport, but we'll also look at the now-finalized unification showdown between Kell Brook and Jessie Vargas, Joseph Parker's big win and what comes next for (zzzz) Erislandy Lara.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week!
Did Canelo Duck GGG?
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It doesn't look good for Canelo, a Mexican superstar and boxing's top draw, to appear to have pulled a Riddick Bowe and thrown his WBC Middleweight Championship into the trash bin rather than take on his consensus top challenger.
Canelo and his promoter—Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions—announced via press release Wednesday evening that they would vacate the WBC's 160-pound belt in order to eliminate the "ticking clock" and the need to "negotiate under a forced deadline."
That's good PR stuff, but fans and media alike have savaged Canelo for seeming to drop his title in order to push off the fight that virtually every boxing fan would probably tell you is the one they want to see more than all others.
It was a vast departure from his statements in the ring after nearly decapitating Amir Khan a couple of weeks back.
“Like we say in Mexico, ‘We don’t f--k around.’ I don’t fear anyone. We don’t come to play in this sport. I fear no one in this sport. Right now, I will put on the gloves again and fight him [Golovkin]," Canelo said on the HBO pay-per-view broadcast.
The cinnamon-haired star has taken the brunt of the criticism, but it's unfair to shovel all the burden onto his shoulders. He's consistently said he wants the fight, and his reputation for taking on tough challenges seems to support his claim.
De La Hoya, on the other hand, seems reluctant to place his company's cornerstone in the ring (right now, at least) against the man who now possesses three-fourths of the middleweight championship and would enter as a huge favorite.
You can hardly blame him from a business standpoint, but that doesn't make this look less like a duck, assuming the fight doesn't happen in the fall, which it probably won't.
If Not Canelo, Who for GGG?
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Steve Kim of Boxing Scene reported Golovkin—the WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight champion—will fight in September whether he lands a fight with Canelo or not.
GGG's promoter Tom Loeffler listed a series of possible opponents, per Kim: "Canelo is certainly the No. 1 choice, but at the same time if a fight with (Billy Joe) Saunders is makeable, that's a great fight. If a fight with Danny Jacobs is makeable, that's a great fight...a fight with Chris Eubank Jr., if that's makeable, that's a great fight."
Loeffler also mentioned Gilberto Ramirez, who just captured a super middleweight title with a lopsided decision win over veteran Arthur Abraham, as an attractive possibility.
None of those fights is the one boxing fans want to see, but, at some point, you have to come to grips with the fact Golovkin and team can't force guys to fight him.
Saunders has once again been vocal about a desire to fight GGG, tweeting some not nice words to Canelo for dropping the belt (warning: links contain NSFW language) and Golovkin. Whether that fight happens this time around or once again proves to be just talk remains to be seen.
Eubank Jr. is another fighter who has been talking up his desire to face the Kazakh bomber. He recently signed a new contract with Matchroom Sport and claims to be ready for the fight, per ESPN.com.
Jacobs, who holds the regular WBA Middleweight Championship, is technically GGG's mandatory, but the WBA, in a laudable act of cooperation, promised to not force that mandatory while there was still a chance of Canelo-GGG going forward.
Since that doesn't seem likely, Jacobs might well be the most likely (should he accept) to land the next shot at dethroning boxing's most exciting fighter.
Good luck.
Is Brook-Vargas a Diamond in the Rough?
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Dan Rafael of ESPN.com reported Saturday that Kell Brook and Jessie Vargas have agreed to terms on a welterweight bout that would unify their IBF and WBO 147-pound titles.
The bout will take place in Brook's hometown of Sheffield, England, in late August or early September at Bramall Lane—the outdoor soccer stadium that hosts Sheffield United F.C. Bob Arum's Top Rank owns television rights in the United States, which will likely land the fight on HBO.
Brook has held the IBF Welterweight Championship since dominating Shawn Porter in his first fight on American soil in 2014. He's been somewhat stuck in place since, losing significant time to a frightening machete attack and stopping a trio of uninspiring opponents.
Vargas captured the vacant WBO Welterweight Championship with a career-best performance against Sadam Ali in March. He dropped Ali in Rounds 8 and 9 to win what was up to that point as an exciting fight.
It seems likely Brook will be penned by most as the favorite due to his strong technical boxing style, but it's definitely not a walk in the park. Vargas showed significant improvements after suffering the first loss of his career (against Timothy Bradley) and could be the best boxer Brook has yet faced.
This is a high-level fight between two risk-takers, and it could prove to be one of the better bouts of the year. Bravo to both fighters and their teams for taking the gamble.
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Could Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker Be Sooner Than We Thought?
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Parker passed the first significant test of his career with a unanimous-decision win over Carlos Takam in his native New Zealand on Saturday. The 24-year-old Kiwi won by scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 116-112, all of which seemed fair and reasonable given the back-and-forth action.
The win positions Parker as No. 1 contender for the IBF Heavyweight Championship, which fellow unbeaten young heavyweight Anthony Joshua currently holds. It seems likely the sanctioning body will order a fight between Parker and No. 2 contender Kubrat Pulev to determine the mandatory challenger.
Joshua vs. Parker is a fight that would draw a significant amount of interest.
Both men are young, undefeated and always mentioned at the top of the list of best young heavyweights in the sport today. The timing might not be right, at least in the immediate term, but that's a fight many fans will desire to see before long.
Parker was not without his flaws against Takam, but he showed some guts and guile to pull out a tough fight.
It seemed as though Takam let his man off the hook during key moments in the fight, which probably could have turned out differently if he'd applied smarter pressure when his man was laboring, but the decision was more than fair. Parker showed good skill against a tough veteran.
Parker still has work to do, but this was an overall solid performance.
Did Erislandy Lara Earn a Significant Fight?
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Let's be clear.
You can talk all you want about Lara's technical boxing skill and his ability to be a ring general, but the guy is both a chore and a bore to watch in the ring. He's become so much more risk-averse over the years that you can understand why he's garnered so little mainstream attention despite an impressive resume.
Lara outpointed Vanes Martirosyan on Saturday night in Las Vegas to retain his WBA Junior Middleweight Championship. Like the first fight, this one seemed difficult to score and heading toward another close and perhaps controversial verdict.
Martirosyan made most of his hay with an underrated body attack, which seemed to be completely ignored by both the punch-counters and judges, so Lara walked away with a unanimous decision. That's not to say it was undeserved, but simply to point out that, once again, the judges dismissed body work.
Lara said in his post-fight comments in the ring that he wants either Canelo or GGG next.
Personally, I'd be fine with marrying Queen Daenerys, but that has as much a shot of happening as Lara does of landing a fight with one of those guys.
Canelo took a close (some argue controversial, but not me) decision over Lara in 2014 and won't go near him again.
GGG would probably face him, but why?
It's the ultimate in lose-lose situations.
Lara doesn't draw flies, his style literally puts people to sleep, and when Golovkin detonates his jaw (remember, Alfredo Angulo, with half of GGG's power, put Lara down hard) the same people who demanded the fight will lambaste GGG for beating a smaller guy.
Pass.
Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.
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