Oscar De La Hoya
Former professional boxer Oscar De La Hoya gestures during the 84th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California, November 29, 2015. Reuters/David McNew

The mandatory bout between unified middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin and WBC middleweight champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is still far from certain, but Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya already believes the expected match between the two would be the next super-fight after last year’s Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao.

The projected pay-per-view numbers remain a concern for the much-anticipated fight between Golovkin and Alvarez later this year, and De La Hoya, who had a meeting with NFL club Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for a possible Canelo vs Golovkin match at the AT&T Stadium, believes the bout will have to be heavily built up. However, the “Golden Boy” believes it would be a potential super-fight in 2016 next to the record-breaking clash of Mayweather and Pacquiao last year.

“As you know, we have to build this fight up to be the next super-fight. And, yes, it will be the next super-fight,” De La Hoya said, reports Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times. “The difference with this one [and Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao] is there will be action, there will be knockdowns — probably a knockout.”

Alvarez, who will take on Amir Khan for the WBC middleweight belt on May 7, garnered 900,000 PPV buys in his recent fight against Miguel Cotto, while Golovkin only managed a mere 150,000 in October last year against David Lemieux. This suggests Golovkin may still need to work on his ability to draw huge PPV numbers before fighting Alvarez, which is unlikely to happen against the undefeated Kazakh’s next opponent Dominic Wade.

Meanwhile, K2 Promotions managing director Tom Loeffler revealed that Golovkin has the contract to fight the winner between Alvarez and Khan. According to Loeffler, Golovkin taking on either Canelo or Khan is part of the voluntary defence Golden Boy has requested, insisting that everything is signed by all parties including the WBC.

“Everything is mandated,” Loeffler told Fight Hype. “The winner of Canelo v Khan has 15 days to commit to fighting Gennady or not. If they commit then we’ll start negotiating to put that fight together.”

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