The much-anticipated rematch between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin is official.
Golden Boy Promotions, who promotes Alvarez, Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, who promotes Golovkin, have agreed to the rematch, per ESPN. The fight is scheduled to take place on May 5 at a site to be determined. The three likeliest places to host the fight are the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Both Alvarez and Golovkin are excited to engage once more after their first encounter on September 16, 2017 failed to provide a clear and concise winner. Golovkin, who firmly believes he was the winner in the first fight, said he's elated to get his hands on Alvarez and prove that he is in fact the top middleweight in the world.
"I am ready to battle Canelo again and am happy he took this fight again," Golovkin said. "This is the fight the world wants. This is the fight boxing deserves. I didn't agree with some of the judges' decisions in the first fight. This time there will be no doubt. I am leaving the ring as the middleweight champion of the world."
Alvarez also talked about being a part of one of the sport's biggest fights and said he will knock out Golovkin, a feat that has never been done in Golovkin's amateur and professional career.
"I'm delighted to once again participate in one of the most important boxing events in history," Alvarez said. "This second fight is for the benefit and pleasure of all fans who desire to see the best fight the best. This time, Golovkin won't have any excuses regarding the judges because I'm coming to knock him out."
The first fight, which took place in Las Vegas, ended in a split draw that saw many criticize judge Adalaide Byrd's scorecard, which was 118-110 in favor of Alvarez. Fightful had scored the fight a 114-114 draw, but many believed that Golovkin was the rightful winner. Golovkin's WBA "super," WBC, IBF and IBO titles, as well as Alvarez's The Ring and lineal middleweight titles were on the line in the first encounter.
After the first fight, negotiations for a rematch began almost immediately with the WBC ordering a rematch between the two. Back in October, Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez had previously told Fightful that the rematch was going to take place either in March or on May 5.
Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has Golovkin as the early favorite at -180 and Alvarez at +150 with an over/under of 11.5 rounds. The first bout between the two did a reported 1.3 million pay-per-view buys, the second highest pay-per-view buyrate for a boxing event in 2017.