The WBC gave Saul “Canelo” Alvarez an extension to negotiate with Gennady Golovkin and allowed the Mexican champ to take a voluntary title defence in May next year.

The WBC released a statement on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) that it will give Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) an extended period of time to negotiate with Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs), allowing Canelo for a voluntary defence of his middleweight title belt which he won against Miguel Cotto last month.

Both fighters will be required to negotiate immediately after their next fight or starting May 31, 2016. The reason behind the governing body’s decision to delay the potential superfight between the two middleweight champs was to “maximise the interest on their highly anticipated showdown.”

"Canelo vs. GGG is one of the most important events in the sport of boxing, and their promotional companies and partners have been communicating openly and in good faith," the WBC's statement read via Boxing Scene. "The ultimate goal of all involved is to make certain that the best conditions are secured for their fighters and the boxing world, and to preserve their full commitment to abide by, and respect, the governing WBC Rules & Regulations."

With Alvarez taking up a voluntary title defence before facing Golovkin, the Mexican middleweight could opt for a rematch with Cotto. While there is no confirmation yet if Alvarez is interested to fight Cotto once again, having a rematch would make sense for both sides.

Cotto was the lineal WBC champion prior to his loss against Alvarez, so it is only natural for the Puerto Rican to go for a rematch. Moreover, their recent fight revenue was historical as it generated 900,000 PPV buys and was the 13th biggest gate in Nevada history. Dan Ambrose of Boxing News 24 believes the figures could convince Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya to push Alvarez for a rematch against the Puerto Rican middleweight.

The initial deadline for Alvarez and “GGG” to fight was Monday. Alvarez would have been stripped off his WBC middleweight title if both parties had not come to an agreement.

According to Tyler Conway of Bleacher Report, the extended negotiations is a “big move” for both Alvarez and Golovkin to hash out a number of terms, which includes the purse split. Alvarez is the bigger national draw over Golovkin, and their recent matches prove that.

However, according to Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler, whatever the circumstances are, the Kazakh knockout artist is still primed for a chance to unify the WBC belt to his handful of middleweight titles.

“For a big fight like this -- and when you look at how long some of the other big fights took to get made, it’s not that long -- Gennady has a guarantee to fight ‘Canelo’ in the fall, or he’ll have the WBC belt,” Loeffler said, reports the LA Times. “So that seems like a good deal to take.”

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