A third fight between Alvarez and Golovkin may be inevitable, but it won’t be next.
On Saturday night, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez edged out Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on the judges’ scorecards, the culmination of a year’s bad blood following their controversial draw in September of 2017. But that didn’t stop the conversation from immediately turning to a third fight between the two middleweight greats.
And why not? Their second fight from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was both technical and exciting, one of the rare times in boxing that the best vs. the best produces fireworks that leave the crowd awed. And once again you’ve got people suggesting Golovkin got screwed, albeit by a single point rather than eight like in their first meeting. With all that guaranteed skill and drama, you couldn’t ask for a better setup for a trilogy fight.
“We would like to have a third fight,” Golovkin said at the post-fight press conference. “We will negotiate it. It would be great to have a third fight.”
With Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 estimated to make over $50 million for each boxer, there’s simply too much money on the table for 3 not to happen. But with Canelo holding the win and the belts, he’s the one in control now. And it sounds like he’s not interested in running last night’s victory back against the extremely tough “GGG” just yet.
“We have to talk with my team and figure things out,” Alvarez said after the win. “But the idea right now is to fight in December.”
”A fight with David Lemieux is possible for December in New York,” Oscar de la Hoya, Canelo’s promoter, confirmed. Lemieux had a highlight reel performance on the undercard of the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 card, knocking out Gary O’Sullivan in the first round with a massive left hook counter (watch it here).
With all the drama and animosity surrounding Alvarez and Golovkin, it was always unlikely that a third fight would happen immediately after a second. And it only plays in Canelo’s favor to slow play a trilogy fight with Golovkin, who is close to aging out at 36 years old. But let’s hope boxing politics don’t get in the way of us seeing Canelo vs. Golovkin 3. Not getting that after everything that’s happened would be as big of a robbery as Canelo vs. Golovkin 1.