Holding world titles from three different governing bodies, Gennady Golovkin is bound to have mandatory challengers that he needs to fulfill, but the WBC said it has ordered a rematch with Canelo Alvarez instead.
At the 55th annual WBC Convention, Mauricio Sulaiman said the Board of Governors decided to order a rematch for the two boxing superstars. The WBC technically has Jermall Charlo as Golovkin's mandatory challenger for the middleweight title, but Sualiman said Canelo vs. GGG 2 is the one fight that fans want to see.
One potential roadblock in making a Canelo vs. GGG rematch happen is the fact that Golovkin has a mandatory challenger in Charlo after Charlo defeated Jorge Sebastian Heiland back in July. The WBA and IBF do not have any mandatory challengers, but the WBA does have a "regular" champion in Hassan N'Dam and the plan, as it has been for the past couple of years, is for each weight class to have just one WBA world champion. Sergey Derevyanchenko won an IBF middleweight eliminator when he stopped Tureano Johnson in August, but the IBF has not ordered a match between GGG and Derevyanchenko.
Both camps for Canelo and GGG have been engaging in rematch talks, but no such rematch has been announced. The plan for any rematch is to most likely have the fight on Cinco De Mayo weekend (May 5).
The first fight between the two, which reportedly did 1.3 million pay-per-view buys. That number is being disputed by Glen Boy Promotions, but regardless of the pay-per-view number, it was still a financial success, achieving the third-highest live gate for a boxing match in Nevada history.
