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If their third fight were truly personal to Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin believes it would’ve happened long before this September 17, the targeted date for Alvarez-Golovkin III.
Golovkin therefore was perplexed when the Kazakh knockout artist read recently that the Mexican superstar contended their third bout is “personal” for him because Golovkin talks “a lot of sh!t.”
“I would say I am even bewildered by the fact that it’s very personal to him,” Golovkin told BoxingScene.com through a translator. “And he also said that I allegedly said some bad things about him. I remember that after the second fight, we shook hands and we said, ‘Good fight,’ to each other, we got the outcome as it was. And then, three or four years later, he’s starting to say it’s very personal to him. It’s cheap. I would say it’s kind of low.”
Golovkin, 39, thought a third fight versus Alvarez would’ve happened long before the year 2022 when he signed a six-fight contract with DAZN in March 2019. Alvarez, however, never actually committed to completing their trilogy when he signed his ill-fated, 10-fight, $365 million deal with DAZN in October 2018.
Alvarez’s former handlers at Golden Boy Promotions reportedly assured DAZN that Alvarez was on board with that third fight. An ensuing contractual dispute between Alvarez, Golden Boy and DAZN led to Alvarez and Golden Boy parting ways in the fall of 2020.
Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing subsequently has promoted four of Alvarez’s past five fights, all on DAZN, including his shot at Dmitry Bivol’s WBA light heavyweight championship May 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
If Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) defeats Japan’s Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) in their middleweight title unification fight April 9 in Saitama, Japan and Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) beats Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs), they’re expected to fight a third time September 17 as part of Alvarez’s recent multi-fight agreement with Matchroom and DAZN.
“I think it’s too early to discuss that,” Golovkin said. “I’ll be happy to get back to that question later. When the time comes, we can discuss Triple-G-Canelo III. But right now, it’s too early. There are so many things that need to happen before that.”
Golovkin was willing to discuss Alvarez’s comments to BoxingScene.com senior writer Jake Donovan on their rivalry, which were made while the four-division champion promoted the Bivol bout two weeks ago in San Diego (https://www.boxingscene.com/canelo-on-golovkin-trilogy-yeah-its-personal-he-talk-lot-sht-says-lot-things–164776).
“There are so many new answers,” said Golovkin, who lost their 12-round rematch by majority decision in September 2018. “He’s saying that he’s not going to grant a [third fight]. And then he took his company, Golden Boy, to court over the alleged fact that they signed a contract without his permission. But it’s nothing personal from my side. I go on with my life and I believe he went on with his life. And for him to comment in this way right now, it’s just low. All those sordid remarks are misplaced.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.