CANELO ALVAREZ has agreed terms for a rematch with Gennady Golovkin and the superfight looks likely for May 5 with New York’s Madison Square Garden and Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena – the home of their opener – the frontrunners to host.
The sequel has been in the offing ever since the pair shared a contentious 12-round draw in September last year. The consensus from ringside that night was that Golovkin, 35, had done enough to win, before a crazy 118-110 card from Adelaide Byrd of 118-110 in 27-year-old Canelo’s favour blew the result wide open and all logic up in smoke. Subsequent scores of 115-113 from Dave Moretti for “GGG” and 114-114 from Don Trella confirmed the draw.
WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight king Golovkin is thought to be “hopeful” that the deal for the sequel can be concluded in the coming days. Some of the finer details need to be resolved and, in fights like this, there are likely to be plenty but none are expected to be problematic.
According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, there is no clause in the contract for a third bout.
“It’s going to be another great fight, so it’ll likely be a natural to do another rematch, but it’s not in the agreement,” Golden Boy’s Eric Gomez said.
“We want to concentrate on getting done and then we can talk about a third fight later.
“We’ve exchanged contracts. We’ve gone through three revisions. I’m hoping for the last revision [imminently] and we’ll see.
“All the major points have been worked out. There’s some details that are important, but they’re not the major points.”
Prior to the controversy at the end, the September bout was a cracker with Canelo edging the opening round before Golovkin took over through the middle sessions. By the 10th round, it appeared to Boxing News that the Mexican – being outboxed and outfought – needed a knockout to win.
Buoyed by pleas from his corner, Canelo bossed the final three rounds to shorten the gap. A smattering of observers felt his rally had clawed back the deficit on the cards but nobody, Byrd withstanding, felt he had built a wide and commanding lead.
However, even without the controversy, Canelo’s success in the bout’s final third and Golovkin’s advancing years makes a rematch fascinating, with the winner as hard to call as it was before the first contest.
