Promoter Eddie Hearn has told Canelo Alvarez that his career is "in the balance" if he loses to Gennadiy Golovkin in their trilogy bout.
Alvarez will face Golovkin on September 17 in his return to super-middleweight after losing his latest effort at light-heavyweight to Dmitry Bivol. There had been talk of an immediate rematch between the Mexican and his Russian opponent, but he instead opted to stick with his planned trilogy bout.
But his promoter has warned that he must defeat the legendary Kazakh fighter again if he is to maintain his pound-for-pound status as one of the greats. The pair have fought twice before, drawing their first meeting before Alvarez took a razor-close decision win in the rematch.
"The first two fights were two of the greatest fights we’ve ever seen, firstly," Hearn said during an appearance on The DAZN Boxing Show. “Secondly, the mirage of Canelo being this unbeatable fighter doesn’t exist; the reality is coming off. Two losses almost put your career in the balance.
“We know that Canelo went up to 175, it was a big ask, but he was expected to win that fight. He has to win this fight; if he loses to GGG on September 17th, where do you go from there? Back-to-back defeats against two different fighters, this time with almost no excuse. The toughest thing for Canelo in this fight is to bounce back from that defeat; he was devastated to lose to Bivol."
However, after having won their first two meetings at 160lb it is believed that Alvarez will have a further advantage when he takes Golovkin up to 168lb. The middleweight fighter's career highest weight is 163lb, but he'll have to bulk up further for the trilogy bout against the undisputed champion.
Who are you picking to win this fight; Canelo Alvarez or Gennadiy Golovkin? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"He’s [Canelo] still the favourite," Hearn continued, before disputing the argument about the weight offering Alvarez a major advantage. "Gennadiy Golovkin sometimes gets a little bit of criticism from the Murata fight, but the guy hadn’t boxed for over 400 days, went out there, he sometimes starts slow and then he just went into overdrive and brutalised the guy.
"I think the move to 168 is going to really help Gennadiy Golovkin, don’t forget he’s been at 160 for nine, ten years of his career. I thought he looked a little bit weight drained out there in Japan, and I think 168 is going to help him. I think it will be a brutal fight, this fight won’t go 12 rounds in my opinion.
"I think Canelo Alvarez with the spite he’s going to have coming off the defeat and the dislike he has for Gennadiy Golovkin and vice versa. I think these guys are going to go at it."
