Canelo Alvarez Wants Gennady Golovkin Rematch in May 2018

Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is seeking a rematch with Gennady Golovkin for his first fight in 2018 after they fought to a split draw at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Sept. 18.

On Thursday, the middleweight title contender told ESPN Deportes (via Boxing News 24) he doesn't want to discuss any other potential bouts until they have the "tiebreaker."

"I feel happy for what I did, and the people were happy with the fight and that's what's important," Alvarez said. "They want the rematch, and we'll see. I'm enjoying a vacation, enjoying what I did, but what I want is that it's the first fight [of 2018]. I do not want to fight any other than the tiebreaker and that's what we're going to try to do; make it the first fight of the year for Canelo, to be the tiebreaker."

Both camps previously expressed optimism to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com about reaching an agreement on the second fight without Canelo needing to invoke his rematch option, which must be exercised within three weeks of the first encounter if no deal is in place.

"I spoke to [Golovkin promoter] Tom [Loeffler] a few times, and he's certainly open to it after talking to his side, so we agreed to sit down later this week and start discussing it," Gomez said last week. "Obviously, we're going to give Canelo some time off and we'll start talking to him as well. Immediately after the fight everybody was open to a rematch. I feel it was such a great fight it deserves a rematch, even besides it being such a close fight."

Loeffler added: "Fans are demanding the rematch. They want a clear winner, which we thought was GGG. But I think Gennady and Canelo owe the fans the rematch and, frankly, for the sport of boxing to right to the bad decision we saw last Saturday. So I'll sit down with Eric. We had a preliminary conversation to touch base, and HBO definitely thinks we need to do an immediate rematch."

The first bout was an entertaining, highly competitive battle that ended in controversial fashion. Two judges scored it extremely close—115–113 Golovkin by Dave Moretti and a 114-114 draw by Don Trella—but Adalaide Byrd delivered a shocking 118–110 score for Alvarez.

Nevada Athletic State Commission executive director Bob Bennett confirmed to Jack de Menezes of the Independent that Byrd would be given a "small break" due to her scoring of that fight.

"I'm not going to put her right back in. She'll still be in the business, but she needs to catch her breath," he said. "Like in any profession, you have a bad night. Unfortunately, she didn't do well. I can tell you she conducts training for us, takes judges under her wing, but her score was too wide."

Golovkin called himself the "real champion" in a message on Instagram after watching a fight replay.

Although the sides are both seeking the rematch, neither camp provided a timetable for an agreement on a date and location for the second fight.