Canelo Alvarez ready to fight Gennady Golovkin at '160 pounds, no problem'
LAS VEGAS - It was a good hour and a half after his devastating one-punch knockout of Amir Khan on Saturday night at this city's newest showcase, the T-Mobile Arena, when the words finally came out of the mouth of Canelo Alvarez every boxing fan has been waiting to hear for the last year or so.
"For me, there are no issues," the WBC/lineal middleweight champion said at his post-fight news conference, referring to his mandated but oft-doubted future middleweight unification bout against Gennady Golovkin. "I'll fight at 160 pounds, no problem."
Suddenly, with that one sentence, it seemed as though that highly anticipated rumble between the two best middleweights in the world in one of boxing's glamour divisions was closer to becoming a reality this fall than ever.
KHAN KNOCKED OUT: Canelo wins in sixth round
No matter how many times Oscar De La Hoya stood before the media last week and said if Canelo takes care of business, "the day after the fight, I will call Golovkin's people to start negotiating," the words rang hollow.
Why? Because the five-pound difference (Saturday's bout was contested at 155 pounds) between what each fighter has long insisted on fighting at might as well have been 50 pounds. Neither side seemed willing to concede an ounce. And Canelo didn't instill confidence that the fight is imminent when he said during fight week that Golovkin had to earn it by fighting tougher competition. It's awfully difficult when nobody wants to fight you.
When Canelo came to the ropes after he had stopped Khan cold and gestured to Golovkin, sitting ringside, to come up to the ring, GGG just smiled and walked away with promoter Tom Loeffler and trainer Abel Sanchez.
"I invited him because I'm not afraid. And I wanted to prove to him I'm not afraid," Canelo said. "We didn't have any words. But the main thing is this: If we're going to fight, we're going to fight not because it's mandated. I don't care about that. If we're going to fight, we're going to fight for honor and pride."
ROGERS: Boxing needs Canelo-Golovkin clash
Also sitting ringside, across from Golovkin, was Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, who has become friendly with Canelo and Golovkin.
While De La Hoya said that the T-Mobile Arena would be Canelo's home for a long time to come after 16,540 well-behaved fans attended the inaugural boxing card there, the promoter said he is "absolutely interested" in Jones' 100,00-plus seat AT&T Stadium in Texas as a destination for a Canelo-GGG mega-fight.
"I invited him here personally, and I appreciate him coming down," De La Hoya said. "That's how serious he is about taking a Canelo fight or several fights to his place.
"I'm going to be doing a lot of work next week. I now have to fly to Dallas, and there are others who want to stage Canelo fights, all over the country and all over the world."
If Canelo-GGG happens next, it will likely be in mid-September around the Mexican Independence holiday, one of two Mexican holidays the Guadalajara fighter wants to reserve for his fights.
"No pressure whatsoever (to get a deal done)," De La Hoya said. "I feel very confident my side can come to an agreement and make the right deal for both fighters."
Golovkin, whose 35-0 record and 22 consecutive knockouts puts him at No. 3 on Paste BN Sports/Boxing Junkie's pound-for-pound list, said at ringside that he was very impressed by Canelo's performance, and that he's been waiting a long time for this fight to happen.
"I'm ready," Triple G said with a big smile.
(Photo by Joshua Dahl, Paste BN Sports)