Canelo Alvarez put on a great show this weekend, pulling off a unanimous decision win over Puerto Rican foe Miguel Cotto at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and snag the lineal WBC middleweight title.
The fight was good as advertised but it was the Mexican’s big blows and aggressiveness that impressed the judges. Cotto did try to counter and land some big punches but his efforts were simply not enough compared to what Alvarez had been showing.
In the end, the judges scored it 117-111 (John McKaie), 119-109 (Burt Clements) and 118-110 (Dave Moretti) as reported by the LA Times.
So with that decided, the next thing that comes to mind is on whether Alvarez would be holding on to the belt or not. Though the normal answer would be to of course cling on to it, there are prerequisites to satisfy and that is to face the mandatory challenger recognized by the WBC.
That fighter is none other than Gennady Golovkin, a knock-out artist who has shown his savvy of pummelling opponents with no loss to show.
Golovkin was on hand at the venue to witness the fight and got a glimpse of what he may be up against in 2016.
Triple G actually picked Alvarez over Cotto to win before the fight took place and admitted before that the Mexican would be a tough opponent to face as reported by ESPN Sports Nation via Boxing News 24.
“Maybe Canelo. He’s young, new style I never seen before,” Golovkin was quoted of saying back in July.
After his triumph in Las Vegas, Alvarez was expectedly thrown the question regarding is future plans which of course included the question on whether he would be facing Golovkin or not.
“I’ll fight anybody anytime. I’m not afraid of anybody,” Canelo was quoted as saying when he was asked if he would be facing Golovkin next. “If you guys don’t believe me, I’ll get back in and go another 12 rounds.”
However, there are road blocks expected along the way to make an Alvarez vs. Golovkin materialize.
One is the catchweight issue. Alvarez had said before that he would only fight at 155 lbs. and not the set 160 lbs. weight for the WBC middleweight title. Golovkin had also mentioned that he will not drop to 155, further backed by the fact that the WBC is not expected to impose the demands of Alvarez.
Then, there is the Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya who is reportedly not ready to commit to a match with Golovkin. De La Hoya plans to sit with Alvarez and explore the possible fights before ultimately deciding on how to handle the looming and mandatory showdown with Triple G.
Given that the WBC has made it clear that the winner of the Alvarez-Cotto bout will be facing Golovkin next, it doesn’t look like Alvarez will have much of a choice. Either that or he may just see the title taken away from his grasp.
