Canelo and GGG should move on to their September fight

In these uncertain times of when professional sports worldwide will be able to resume, especially with fans in attendance, there is an obvious mega-fight looming for later in the year. And, it’s time the Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin prepare for each other this September.

As it stands right now, Alvarez and “Triple G” have already agreed, at the urging of DAZN streaming service, to fight for a third time this September. And, it will probably in Las Vegas as part of “Mexican Independence Day Weekend.”

But in the interim, both fighters have had fights scheduled for this Spring that are now on hold. And, most importantly, it makes no sense at this point that either one of them risk losing, significant damage or injury, plus wear and tear fighting lesser opponents closer to their September showdown.

Golovkin also already suffered a calf injury that delayed his March IBF middleweight bout with Kamil Szeremeta. It had been tentatively rescheduled for May until the Coronavirus outbreak forced postponements across-the-board worldwide in boxing.

Alvarez had been waiting to fight on “Cinco de Mayo” weekend and had reportedly finally gotten all of the details worked out, including purse money, for WBO super-middleweight champ Billy Joe Saunders to be his opponent. However, none of that could get announced before the United States, in specific, began to go into shutdown mode for COVID-19, back 10 days ago.

And, while the reports are that the Canelo-Saunders fight might still be held in late May or June, all that’s going to do is jeopardize the timeline for the possible Canelo-GGG fight. This is because, the longer it takes and if it’s a grueling battle, the more likely Alvarez will be to want to push back the September date or perhaps wait until November to fight again, like he did against Sergey Kovalev in Vegas last year.

That’s when he couldn’t find an opponent for months and ended up waiting 9 months between fights before capturing the WBO light heavyweight title by knockout.

Here’s the real reality in terms of interest, and most importantly, finances: the Alvarez fight with Saunders is simply “a date against a guy.” And, while Saunders has some popularity in the U.K., he has virtually no fan base or interest in this United States. And more importantly for Alvarez’s fanbase, none with his millions of Mexican fans.

In other words: whether Alvarez was fighting Saunders or any other little known opponent for the big stage, it wouldn’t really matter in terms of the live gate and the revenue. You could only sell the fight so much, and mainly, selling it on being “Canelo’s next fight.”

Sure, DAZN wants dates and popular fighter’s fights, but they are currently losing subscribers in droves for March and April (and probably May) without live fights. And, the whole reason that their chief executive, John Skipper, did the deal with Golovkin last year was for this third mega-fight rematch.

Further, there’s absolutely no comparison to Golovkin being the next opponent for Canelo. This, as GGG (40-1-1, 35 KOs) was Undisputed Middleweight Champion for seven years (2011-18) and had a controversial draw in the first fight with Canelo in September 2017.

Then, many believe he was robbed of a decision in the second fight a year later (September of 2018) in his only pro loss to date. So, you have controversy and revenge selling this third fight with an immensely popular fighter in North America, who has fought numerous times on the big stage in New York and Las Vegas, for huge revenue etc., already.

There are millions and millions, who want to see that fight.

So, it seems quite simple.

All things considered and with the sport on hold for 60 more days, at least, Alvarez and Golovkin do not need to take unnecessary fights/risks against lesser-known opponents. And therefore, jeopardize what would easily be a $15 million or more live gate for their bout and probably, worth $50-60 million in DAZN subscribers for the month it’s held.

And, a third fight that would potentially pay Alavarez and Golovkin each $30 million dollars or more.

Again, as we always write in this space and say on the Big Fight Weekend, podcast, “follow the money.”

The money is not with them fighting lesser known fighters and risking the biggest event that either of them has at this point: each other.