Boxing
Gennadiy Golovkin's trainer shoots down immediate trilogy fight with Canelo Alvarez
Reports have surfaced that a trilogy fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin could take place later in 2020, but nothing is for sure due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down the entire sports world.
When boxing returns, some fighters are going to want to jump right into the fire and take the biggest fights possible due to the shortened schedule. But Golovkin's trainer, Johnathon Banks, isn't keen on the idea of a third Alvarez bout right away and has already dismissed such a fight happening any time soon.
"No, they called me about it, and I said no," Golovkin's head trainer Johnathon Banks told IFL TV. "The plan was for him to get this fight [versus Poland's Kamil Szeremeta, Golovkin's mandatory challenger] and get another fight, and then fight Canelo."
Before COVID-19 shut down sports, the plan reportedly had been for Golovkin to defend his IBF middleweight title against Szeremeta at the beginning of the summer and for Alvarez to challenge WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, on May 2. A Canelo-GGG 3 showdown would be the type of fight to help jump-start the sport for the remainder of the year in a big way. Banks says Golovkin has attempted to make the third fight in the past but got rebuffed by Alvarez.
"When we went to Canelo and said we're ready, he said 'no, I don't want to fight,'" Banks said. "He disappeared and went and did whatever he wanted to do and refused the fight. Now he's saying he's ready after this pandemic, 'let's do it.'"
Alvarez and Golovkin first met in September 2017 and battled to a controversial split draw. Then the following September, Alvarez won a closely contested rematch by majority decision. After the sequel with Golovkin, Alvarez has only competed once at middleweight — in the form of a unanimous decision victory over Daniel Jacobs in May 2019.
Before then, Alvarez moved up to 168 pounds in December 2018 and stopped Rocky Fielding by third-round TKO to win the WBA (Regular) super middleweight title. Then in November of last year, Alvarez jumped up two weight classes and knocked out Sergey Kovalev in the 11th-round to become the IBF super lightweight champion.
Since the rematch with Alvarez, GGG has scored a fourth-round knockout of Steve Rolls in June and defeated Sergiy Derevyanchenko in October by unanimous decision in one of the most exciting fights of 2019 to regain the IBF title. Although he wants to face Alvarez in the worst way after feeling like he won both contests, Banks says Golovkin is sticking with his plan that ends with a bout against his fiercest rival.
"He's (GGG) like, 'No, I already have something planned. So if you want to do this, let me get this fight out of the way, and then if everything is still a go, then let's go,'" Banks said.
