Canelo on fighting Golovkin: 'I'll put the gloves on and fight him now'

When Canelo Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) beat Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) by unanimous decision to win the WBC middleweight (160 lbs) championship, attention immediately shifted towards the potential titanic clash between Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs). The Kazakh is the WBC interim champion and the mandatory opponent for Canelo, and if Alvarez's team does not make a deal to fight him in the next 15 days, then Canelo risks being stripped of the belt he just won.

This is quite clearly a fight that boxing fans would absolutely love to have ASAP, but as is the case in this sport, there's no guarantee it happens. However, when asked in the post-fight interview by HBO's Max Kellerman about whether he would fight Golovkin, Canelo didn't hesitate to say yes.

"If you want me to fight him right now, put the gloves on and I'll fight him right now," Alvarez said (through his interpreter). "I respect he's a great champion, but right now I'll put the gloves on against him."

Meanwhile, Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya says that Canelo will be put on a May/September fight schedule next year, which effectively replaces the role that Floyd Mayweather has held over the past few years. De La Hoya spoke to FightHub about Canelo-Golovkin, assuring everyone the fight will happen, but not committing to it happening right away. (Transcription via Bad Left Hook)

"It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. Don't worry."

"I can take a page out of my mentor's book, Mr. Bob Arum, and say, 'Well you gotta let it marinate a bit.' Or I can say, you know what, let's go, let's do it. Let me talk to my team, let me talk to Canelo, let me discuss how he's feeling and -- look, there's fighters that go up in weight, conquer that division, and come back down, so we don't know. We'll see. But, is he gonna fight Golovkin? Absolutely, absolutely."

It's worth noting that just a couple of weeks ago that Canelo said he'd only fight Golovkin at 155 lbs catchweight, which is the absolute minimum requirement to have a title bout contested at middleweight. That would be quite difficult to negotiate under a mandatory defense, and Golovkin has already shot down any catchweight requests from either Cotto or Canelo, so we'll see if Canelo is willing to drop that demand and get us nearer to seeing him against GGG in 2016.