Canelo/GGG?

A potential 2016 blockbuster showdown between Gennady Golovkin and the winner of November’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto megafight may have hit a major snag.

After GGG ran roughshod over David Lemieux last Saturday, the calls for the knockout artist to face the winner of Cotto-Alvarez picked up steam. Oscar De La Hoya, who is Alvarez’s promoter, said he would “absolutely” do his part in putting together an Alvarez-Golovkin fight should Canelo beat Cotto on Nov. 21. However, he didn’t sound too urgent to make the fight happen in the near future by saying the fight would “eventually” happen.

And perhaps the reason for the hesitation is that his fighter just doesn’t seem too interested in facing Golovkin at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds.

“I don’t run from anybody,” Alvarez told FightHype while in camp getting ready for the Cotto fight. “What I will do is never give weight advantages. I learned my lesson. That was the first thing I learned from my loss to Floyd, to not give any weight advantages, neither more or less. So if he wants to fight with me, let him come down to 155 and I’ll fight him whatever day he wants.”

Canelo also suggested that his body “wasn’t ready” to compete at 160 pounds and that he is perhaps a year or two away from making the full jump.

What makes Canelo’s statement interesting – and frustrating – is the fact that his next bout is for the Cotto’s WBC middleweight title, which of course has a weight limit of 160 pounds. However, the agreed upon weight for the fight is a catch weight of 155 pounds.

To make this situation even more muddled is that the winner would be required by the WBC to commit to a bout with Golovkin within 15 days or be stripped of the title. Golovkin currently holds the IBF, IBO and WBA middleweight championships while also being the WBC interim title-holder and mandatory challenger for the full belt. As the mandatory challenger, Golovkin is not obligated to meet Canelo’s demands to move down to 155, which would essentially be a junior middleweight bout.

If Alvarez were to defeat Cotto and take home the titles, would he simply give up the WBC title in order avoid meeting Golovkin at middleweight?

This surely won’t be the last we hear of this.