WITH Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao no longer in the business of boxing, who will be the next face of the sport?
It should be a toss-up between Mexican firepower Canelo Alvarez and Kazakh fighting machine Gennady Golovkin. What’s exciting here is that they belong to the same weight category, so there should be only one between them.
Alvarez, showing why he’s the next big thing, unleashed a powerful overhand right that hit right smack onto the glassy jaw of Amir Khan in the sixth of their 12-round title fight yesterday at the in Las Vegas.
That was all Alvarez needed to retain the World Boxing Council middleweight title as the British fighter crumpled to the canvass, the back of his head hitting the floor.
He was totally out cold and referee Kenny Bayless didn’t need to count him out and instead, just waved to signal the end of the fight in favor of Alvarez, who improved his fight record to (47W-1L-1D, 33 KOs).
Curiously, one of the keen observers at ringside was Golovkin, the unified middleweight champion, who also holds the WBC interim belt, making the mandatory challenger to Alvarez’s title.
After his bout, Alvarez looked at the direction of Golovkin and invited him in the ring and later in an interview, he said “I’ll fight right now. Let’s put our gloves in there with him (Golovkin).”
Golovkin continued his domination of the middleweight division with his 22nd straight knockout of the previously unbeaten Dominic Wade to successfully defend his WBO and IBF titles.
The Kazakhstani defeated the previously unbeaten Dominic Wade, who was knocked down three times before the fight was finally called to a close.
Golovkin is coming off his 22nd straight knockout win, stopping the previously unbeaten Dominic Wade in the third round to keep his WBO, WBA and IBF titles. Golovkin beautified his flawless record to 35 fights, 35 wins and 32 knockouts with the victory.
Like Alvarez, Golovkin wants the unification fight to happen.
“Give me my belt! I’m ready,” he told Alvarez.
“I’m here now and I’m here to stay. I’m not going anywhere. Let’s fight,” added Golovkin, who was wearing a black WBC shirt, probably saying it’s the only one missing from his collection of word titles.
It should happen later this year. Boxing will be exciting as ever again.