Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Kazakhstan’s tough-as-nails Gennady Golovkin are reportedly in talks to go head-to-head for a third time with a fight expected to be pencilled in for 12 September in Dallas as per reports from The Athletic.
Four-weight champion Canelo is already scheduled to duke it out with WBO super-middleweight king Billy Joe Saunders on 2 May as part of the DAZN subscription service’s UK launch, however the bout is widely expected to be postponed due to the sweeping effect COVID-19 has had across the world of sport.
Canelo and GGG’s two previous meetings, though controversial, were bona fide barnstormers. The first in 2017 was fought out to a draw, while Canelo edged out the second a year later, handing Golovkin his first pro defeat, although, in truth, both of the fights could have gone either way.
The Athletic’s Lance Pugmire stated that the rescheduling of Canelo’s prospective fight with Saunders will dictate when or whether this trilogy fight will take place:
"Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) still intends to first fight Saunders (29-0, 14 KOs) at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, sources say, followed by Golovkin. The hope is for the trilogy bout to take place on 12 September at AT&T Stadium outside Dallas, though date and site are not finalised at this time."
The other alternative could be that Canelo skips over Saunders and goes straight to the Golovkin bout. Although this could prove complicated as Saunders is already Stateside training for the unification clash with Canelo which he hopes can be pushed until June.
Many boxing fans believe Saunders to be a tougher night in the office for the Mexican than Golovkin at this stage in their careers, with the Kazakh having failed to beat him in the previous two fights and, turning 38 next month, he is considered to be on a downward slope in his career.
Should two of the generation’s best square off with one another for a third time, and providing the third can provide the same exhilaration as the previous two instalments, Canelo v Golovkin has the potential to join classics like Barrera v Morales, Bowe v Holyfield and Ward v Gatti as the best trilogy fights to grace the modern era.
