Weight, not money will determine fate of possible Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin middleweight showdown

The fight boxing fans want to see — Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin — likely will take place if the two middleweight champions can agree on a weight to fight.

Alvarez, who retained his World Boxing Council middleweight title Saturday with a devastating sixth-round knockout of Amir Khan at T-Mobile Arena, prefers to fight at a catchweight of 155 pounds. Golovkin, who holds the 160-pound titles of the World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization and is the WBC’s interim middleweight champ, says it’s simple.

“I am old school,” said the 34-year-old Golovkin (35-0, 32 knockouts). “I respect the sport of boxing. You should fight at the weight of the title.”

By its own rules, the WBC can strip Alvarez of his title if a fight does not get made in the next 30 days. But don’t look for that to happen given the 25-year-old Mexican superstar’s status in the sport. The WBC allowed Alvarez to fight Khan at 155 pounds and also allowed him to win the title fighting at 155 pounds when he beat Miguel Cotto last Nov. 21.

But the reality is for Alvarez and Golovkin to ever meet, weight — not money, not location — will be the determining factor.

“Not an ounce less than 160,” said Abel Sanchez, Golovkin’s trainer, of any fight with Alvarez.

Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) says fine.

“There’s not going to be any issues. No weight issues,” Alvarez said. “We’ll go with an offer and see if the fight can get made. I have a team, obviously, but for me there’s no issue. I’ll fight him at 160. We’ll sit down as a team and discuss it.”

It’s one thing to say it. It’s quite another to agree to it in writing and sign off on it. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya said he would begin negotiating immediately with Golovkin. De La Hoya called Golovkin’s manager Tom Loeffler on Sunday, and they agreed to talk again soon. Loeffler did not return requests for comment.

But De La Hoya indicated that Alvarez, not Golovkin, is in the stronger negotiating position.

“Canelo is the superstar. There’s no doubt who the man is in boxing,” De La Hoya said. “It’s like poker. I have four aces and they have a pair of 2s.”

De La Hoya was also putting the cart ahead of the horse by talking about possible sites for a fight that may not get made. He mentioned the fact Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was at the fight Saturday and he’d be interested in hosting a “GGG”-Canelo fight at his AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. De La Hoya also mentioned Dodger Stadium as a possible location.

As for Khan, he went to University Medical Center after the fight to get checked out and was cleared. He went on Twitter Sunday to congratulate Alvarez on the win and said he will pick up the pieces, most likely as a welterweight.

“Plenty more huge fights for me, I’m sure my stocks have risen. … I dared to be great and I’m not going to stop,” Khan tweeted to his 1.7 million Twitter followers.

Both Khan and his trainer Virgil Hunter said they want to see Alvarez fight Golovkin next.

“I think it’s time for Canelo to step up to GGG just like I stepped up to fight him,” Khan said.

Hunter said: “He’s got to stop hiding behind the flag and fight the fight we all want to see.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow on Twitter: @stevecarprj.