In the manner that most were expecting this past Saturday May 7, 2016 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas Nevada, Saul Canelo Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs) retained his WBC world middleweight title with a definitive KO victory over game challenger Amir “King” Khan (31-4, 19KOs) in the sixth round. While Khan was able to out box Canelo for most of the rounds leading up to that final round six, once Khan came to Canelo, it became a question of whether Khan’s chin could reasonably back up Khan’s desire to stand and deliver with a fighter in Canelo who was already the naturally bigger man, as well as a proven hard puncher at their agreed catch weight of 155. In contrast, before this weekend’s fight, Khan had never fought at a weight in excess of 147.
When Canelo delivered the KO that ended the night, there was no question of Khan recovering as in what was a bit of a touch and go moment, Khan was simply unable to move, let alone get up from the canvas for a period of time substantially longer than any count that referee Kenny Bayless might have given in order for him to regroup.
As such, it might have been a tad personal when in the ring immediately after Khan’s loss, Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter went out of his way to say that Canelo needs to quit talking the talk and walk the walk when it comes making his own risky move by fighting the man that all lineal WBC world middleweight champions currently seem determined to avoid, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs): “Amir gave up everything. No concessions,” voiced Hunter, continuing: “Amir took the risk and set the tone. Fighters should fight each other. Now it’s time for (Alvarez) to take the risk and quit hiding. He’s got to quit hiding behind the flag and fight GGG.”
To this end, it would now seem that even HBO is actively in on the push for Canelo to finally fight GGG. In a move that was nothing if not direct, before Canelo vs. Khan entered the ring, as a scheduled part of the Pay Per View card, HBO’s Jim Lampley interviewed Golovkin one on one during Saturday’s fight night, asking GGG whether he would fight Canelo at a lower catch weight to further entice Alvarez to finally be the first genuine A-lister to test the mettle of the unsullied aura that is enjoyed by the ever popular boxing star Golovkin. While Golovkin’s answer was vague in regards to such concrete concessions, post Canelo vs. Khan, in keeping with the tough words that Canelo spoke immediately after beating superstar Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33KOs) to win the WBC world middleweight title in November of 2015, Alvarez was once again all guns blazing on the subject of taking on Golovkin as his next fight – even at 160. Taking the no bullsh*t can do fight spirit even further, Canelo was quite colorful at the post fight press conference when it came to setting Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez straight with regard to his resolve not to lose any titles via timidity with mandatories: “Abel Sanchez said that Canelo doesn’t have the balls to fight Golovkin,” said Canelo via his interpreter, continuing in answer to that claim: “he ( Sanchez) can come and touch them if he wants.”
Nevertheless, fight fans have heard this talk before. Per the words of Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya at this very same post fight press conference, as of this past Sunday immediately after the Canelo vs. Khan fight, a call was to have been initiated by De La Hoya himself to GGG’s handlers to start hammering out a deal. However, when you have otherwise unconnected parties like Virgil Hunter going out of their way to add their two cents to what has been a circuitous road to the ring between Canelo and Golovkin, one can only speculate as to how many devils will be in the details of that call should there be yet another unexpected but insurmountable detour in the mix.
