Alvarez-Golovkin rematch is back on
Middleweight clash scheduled for Sept 15
LOS ANGELES: Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin will square off in their highly-anticipated rematch on Sept 15 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, boxing promoter Oscar De La Hoya said on Wednesday.
“I’m happy to inform that we have a fight September 15!!!!,” De La Hoya tweeted.
The two fighters had been due to fight each other in Las Vegas on May 5 before the middleweight bout was cancelled after Alvarez failed two drugs tests.
So unified middleweight world champion Golovkin instead fought Vanes Martirosyan on May 5 in a one-sided fight that ended in less than two rounds. Martirosyan, who hadn’t fought in nearly two years, lost by second-round knockout at StubHub Center in Los Angeles.
Golovkin and Alvarez fought to a controversial draw in their first meeting in September in a fight that generated 1.3 million pay-per-view buys and a US$27 million gate — the third largest in boxing history. Many thought Golovkin won the fight but one judge scored it even and the other two were split between giving it to Golovkin and Alvarez.
With Alvarez free to fight once his sixmonth suspension ends in August, the two rivals had been expected to fight again in September.
But talks stalled because Alvarez’s camp were reportedly not happy with middleweight world champion Golovkin’s insistence on receiving a 50/50 split in revenues.
The announcement comes a week after De La Hoya said that the talks for a rematch had ended and that Alvarez would likely fight Daniel Jacobs instead.
Mexico’s Alvarez, 27, resumed training recently for what will be his first fight in almost exactly a year.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday that he believes a rematch will generate more interest than the first fight.
“It’s a much bigger fight with all the controversy that has gone on and no love lost between the guys,” Loeffler said.
“In the first fight, it was a respectful promotion, but in the second fight, with the positive test and the way Gennady had to scramble to be able to fight on May 5, he is very edgy. Canelo is very edgy, so I think that’s going to get things heated up.”
The final terms of the agreement or details of the purse split were not released.
Meanwhile, American Deontay Wilder will have a contract in front of him by the end of this week for a world heavyweight unification bout with Britain’s Anthony Joshua, the latter’s promoter Eddie Hearn said.
Hearn told Sky Sports News it is the only way to find out if the WBC title-holder Wilder is serious about fighting Joshua even though reports out of the United States on Monday suggested he had accepted a two fight deal with the 2012 Olympic champion and now holder of the WBA, WBO and IBF belts.
Complicating matters is that Joshua is already due to take on WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin.
“We’ve got to get to the bottom of it today, but one thing I can tell you is that by the end of this week Deontay Wilder will have a contract in front of him and we’ll see if he’s real,” said Hearn.
“I think Wembley is where Anthony Joshua wants it to take place. He had a brilliant night there against Wladimir Klitschko and it seems a natural home.”
If the fight is confirmed, it will be the biggest bout seen in the division in years.