By: Sean Crose
Canelo Alvarez may have lost his fight last month against Dmitry Bivol, but he’s still one of the most formidable and popular fighters in the business. It’s easy to forget that Canelo was fighting above his natural weight when he battled Bivol for a light heavyweight title, after all. Daring to be great means you sometimes have to deal with the short term memories of others. No matter. The red haired star continues to plug along. In fact, his next fight will go down on September 17th. The opponent? Arch rival Gennady Golovkin.
The DAZN streaming service will broadcast the battle as a pay per view event. In the meantime, the fighters and members of their camps will engage in a coast to coast press tour. Via a press release: “To launch the trilogy battle between the two modern greats DAZN, Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, Canelo Promotions and GGG Promotions are delighted to invite media to attend press conferences in Los Angeles and New York to officially launch the third instalment of this thrilling rivalry – and the pair will renew hostilities four years after their last meeting in what promises to be a spectacular night and fight of the year contender.”
The first press conference is set to go down on June 24th in Los Angeles while the second will go down three days later, June 27th, in New York. Although Golovkin doesn’t fight as much as he used to – and is also getting older – there’s no doubt this boutt will be highly promoted. Indeed, Canelo’s loss to the extremely talented Bivol may lead to greater interest in the third Golovkin fight. At the very least, Canelo now seems human. On top of all that there’s been real bad blood over the years between the two future Hall of Famers. They simply don’t appear to like each others.
Lastly, there’s an air of unfinished business about Canelo and Golovkin. Their first battle, which went down in 2017, was a classic affair, though the judges ruled the bout a draw while many, if not most, believed Golovkin had done enough to win. The highly anticipated rematch, which went down the following year, ended up with a decision in favor of Canelo, though there were certainly those who felt Golovkin should have won that battle as well. In short, neither man has conclusively bested the other. A third fight may well clear the air, though to be fair, judges really, really seem to love Canelo.