Golovkin
Gennady Golovkin will defend his IBF middleweight title against Dominic Wade on Apr. 23. Reuters/Eric Gaillard (MONACO - Tags: SPORT BOXING)

Unified middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin was thrilled about the announcement by Golden Boy Promotions of a fight between WBC middleweight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Amir Khan.

Golovkin showed his enthusiasm about the Canelo vs Khan fight after claiming on Twitter that 2016 will be a great year for boxing with the unfolding of one of boxing’s much-anticipated events. Just minutes later, he followed this post with a picture himself with Alvarez and Khan, asking boxing fans, “who do you have?”

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Golden Boy Promotions announced on Tuesday that Alvarez will take on Khan on May 7, tentatively set at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, surprising the boxing world with another intriguing showdown.

The announcement of the fight came unexpectedly, with Alvarez having been linked to opponents like Gabriel Rosado and Willie Monroe Jr for several weeks. But Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya revealed all the names linked to his fighter were just rumours. He also insisted that Khan fits the bill as the Mexican’s worthy opponent.

“People were just throwing names out there,” De La Hoya told ESPN. “So the way it came about was we said to ourselves, what fighter can create a mega event with Canelo? What fighter have we worked with in the past? What fighter has no promoter? I instantly thought about Amir Khan.”

As for Golovkin, the undefeated Kazakh will face Dominic Wade, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.

Compared to the Canelo vs Khan fight, Golovkin’s next bout against an upcoming American boxer who has not yet been defeated in 18 fights would not be as interesting as Alvarez’s date with Khan in May. However, Dan Ambrose of Boxing News 24 believes Golovkin vs Wade will be a better card than what De La Hoya orchestrated in Canelo vs Khan.

“There’s no real suspense with Khan-Canelo because the fans know too well that Canelo will use his big weight advantage to batter Khan until he drops for the 10 count,” Ambrose wrote. “Khan might be around the same height, but he’s probably going to be giving away close to 30 pounds to Canelo.”

Golovkin vs Wade is technically a better fight because both warriors are roughly the same size. Moreover, the two are undefeated, making it more interesting to see whether the 25-year-old Wade has the ability to taint GGG’s unbeaten streak.

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