Don’t Ask: GGG-Canelo 3?

By Norm Frauenheim–

A media call with Gennadiy Golovkin this week was preceded by a warning not to ask a question. The question. Don’t ask about Canelo Alvarez, the electronic missive said. You will be muted.

Give me liberty or give me muted.

Saying no to reporters is a little bit like ordering lions not to eat red meat. If not defiance, it often ensures an artful attempt at a round-about way to ask the prohibited without mentioning the letter-of-the law.

But there was nothing artful and surely no defiance during a Zoom session a few days before GGG’s return to the ring Friday night against Kamil Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs) in Hollywood, Fla.

Promoter Eddie Hearn answered questions about Canelo. But Hearn’s history tells you he’ll talk about almost anything. After all, he once promoted Logan Paul. Meanwhile, Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) was asked about his future. (Hint, hint). He was asked about his legacy. (Hint, hint, hint).

He never went there. Not once. He later was quoted about Canelo in a story reported by AFP, the international press service headquartered in Paris.

“I don’t think about this because I’m tired of thinking about it,” Golovkin told AFP. “It’s been over two years that we’ve been throwing this around. It’s not my fault that this fight has not taken place. Currently, it’s too early to say, but there is a possibility this fight might never happen.”

Done. Enough said. For once, a prohibition on one question makes sense. There nothing left to say about GGG-Canelo 3. No outrage necessary, mostly because a third GGG-Canelo fight is way beyond its past-due date.

The question lingers this week only because of the DAZN schedule. By coincidence or not, GGG’s middleweight title defense (DAZN/5 p.m.ET/2 p.m. PT) in his first fight in 14 months is followed 24 hours later by Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) in a super-middleweight bout against Callum Smith (27-0, 19 KOs) Saturday (DAZN/8 p.m.ET, 5 p.m. PT) in San Antonio. The scheduling is a sign that DAZN still wants a return on GGG and its initial investment in Canelo, who is now a free agent after suing both the streaming network and his former promoter, Oscar De La Hoya.

“I really think the challenge he wants is Canelo Alvarez,’’ said Hearn, who will be in San Antonio Saturday as Smith’s promoter.

But, Hearn said, “a lot has to happen.’’

Maybe too much.

From the looks of it, GGG is in terrific condition. He stepped on the scale Friday at a sculpted 159.2 pounds, safely under the 160 mandatory. He’s never missed weight. Truth is, there’s been any doubt that he ever would. GGG has been the consummate pro. But a scale isn’t a clock. GGG is 38. Presumably, he’ll be near or at 39 the next time he fights. His birthday is April 8. His hourglass is running out of prime time.

Meanwhile, Canelo is 30. He’ll be 31 on July 18. Best: A couple of prime-time years are still on Canelo’s clock. But the scale indicates he has moved up and beyond middleweight. There’s a reason he’ll be at super-middleweight (168) in his first fight since his 11^th-round stoppage of Sergey Kovalev at light-heavyweight (175) more than a year ago (Nov. 2, 2019).

“I personally don’t see Canelo coming back to 160,’’ Hearn said.

The question, then, is whether GGG, a natural middleweight, can ever really fight at 168. Then again, that’s a question that Canelo might have to answer Saturday against the unbeaten Smith.

It’s hard not to conclude that GGG and Canelo missed the optimum moment for a decisive third fight. They fought to a controversial split-draw in September 2017. Canelo won a debatable majority decision in September 2018. The third fight, a trilogy’s definitive chapter, should have happened a year later, September 2019. But it didn’t because of personal animosity. The contempt is mutual and real.

Perhaps, big money can change that. But an opportunity has been missed, more by Canelo than GGG. Canelo’s claim on pound-for-pound supremacy is attached to skepticism from fans who argue that Canelo did not beat GGG decisively, if at all.  A chance to deliver the proof was there in 2019, Pre-Pandemic, at a time when Canelo was improving and GGG appeared to be in decline.

Now? Who knows? Or who cares?

From a historical perspective, there’s a parallel. In September 1981, Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns, then welterweights, fought one of the most memorable bouts ever. Leonard, then 25, beat the 23-year-old Hearns, scoring a fourteenth-round TKO in an outdoor ring on the tennis courts behind Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace. The fight begged for a rematch. Begged for a trilogy. But it took nearly eight years for even a rematch to happen, in part because Leonard retired and then came back because of a detached retina.

But they had lost their moment. Time robbed them of it. By today’s standards, they were still young. Leonard was 33; Hearns was 30. But the fight at super-middleweight, also at Caesars Palace, was a bust. It was a draw, despite two knockdowns. Hearns floored Leonard, once in the third and again in the eleventh. But it was more than controversial. It was forgettable.

Not worth asking about, either.