Golovkin vs. Canelo rematch discussions to begin this week, May 2018 is the target date

Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) and Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) fought to a controversial draw just a few days ago, in front of a whopping 22,358 fans at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. An otherwise entertaining bout was largely overshadowed by the outrageous 118-110 Canelo scorecard turned in by judge Adelaide Byrd, and the result has led to cries for an immediate rematch. Canelo’s team has a contractual right to exercise the rematch clause.

Speaking to ESPN, both Golden Boy Promotions’ Eric Gomez and K2 Promotions’ Tom Loeffler are angling for their fighters to square off again next year.

"I had conversations with [Golden Boy CEO] Oscar [De La Hoya] on Sunday and Monday, and we feel that's the best thing to do, to go straight into a rematch," Gomez said.

He also spoke to Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler, who also wants to pursue a second fight.

"I spoke to Tom a few times, and he's certainly open to it after taking to his side, so we agreed to sit down later this week and start discussing it," Gomez said.

Canelo is expected to sit out for the rest of the year and then return in May 2018. He’s essentially been positioned to fight on the Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day weekends, picking up from where Floyd Mayweather Jr. previously left off, and with the obvious distinction that Alvarez is actually Mexican.

Golovkin is a different story in terms of staying active. The Kazakh fought at least three times in a calendar year in 2013, 2014, and 2015, but was reduced to just two in 2016. If an agreement on the Canelo rematch doesn’t materialize as anticipated, we may see GGG again before 2017 is over. One of the possible opponents for Golovkin would be Miguel Cotto.

"The priority for Gennady is to do the rematch," Loeffler said. "It's the biggest fight still in the sport of boxing and the biggest fight for both guys. We will sit down with Golden Boy and see if we can make that happen and we wouldn't let a different fight get in the way."

If a rematch deal can't be settled quickly, Loeffler said there's a chance Golovkin could return in December, perhaps to defend against superstar Miguel Cotto, who plans to fight on Dec. 2 and then retire.

Cotto is also promoted by Golden Boy.

"If we can make the rematch for May, Gennady would wait for the rematch in May," Loeffler said. "If Canelo won't commit to the rematch in May, then we can't wait on Canelo and we would take a different fight before that. But clearly there's no reason to talk about a different fight yet if we can make the rematch with Canelo in May."

Cotto (41-5, 33 KOs) is planning to retire from boxing at the end of this year, and he stated in the lead-up to Canelo-GGG that he wanted to fight the winner for his farewell bout. The Puerto Rican star is penciled in for December 2nd at Madison Square Garden, but no opponent has been named as of yet.

There’s certainly a lot of financial incentive for a second Canelo-GGG bout, considering last weekend’s contest reportedly had the third-highest gate of all-time (in the range of $30 million), and pay-per-view buys are expected to exceed 1 million. More concrete numbers will be known in the coming weeks.