Saul "Canelo" Alvarez recently indicated that he is not yet ready to face Gennady Golovkin at 160 pounds, but former featherweight champion Mikey Garcia believes the Mexican boxing superstar can handle the unbeaten knockout artist.
Golovkin is one of the rising stars of boxing today and is among the favorites to take the throne vacated by Floyd Mayweather, who announced his retirement in September.
Golovkin holds a perfect 34-0 record with 31 of his victories coming by knockout. The 33-year-old Kazakh has knocked out his last 20 opponents, including David Lemieux during their middleweight title showdown in October.
But while Golovkin looks unbeatable over his past several fights, Garcia is convinced that Alvarez could give "Triple G" a run for his money. He also insisted that Canelo should decide to face the reigning International Boxing Federation, International Boxing Organization and World Boxing Association middleweight champion now.
"If he's not ready now, he'll never be ready," Garcia said in an interview with Fighthype. "If he does fight Triple G, he's the kind of fighter that will give Triple G the most difficult fight ever."
Alvarez, who has racked up 46 victories with 32 knockout wins against just one defeat and one draw, is coming off a unanimous decision win against Miguel Cotto and is now the World Boxing Council middleweight champion.
Golovkin is the mandatory challenger to the WBC title, which means Canelo should face him or run risk of getting stripped off his title. But last month, Canelo made it clear that he is not ready to face Golovkin at 160 pounds.
"If he wants to fight with me, let him come down to 155 and I'll fight him whatever day he wants," Alvarez said via BoxingScene. "At this moment, my body isn't ready for 160 pounds. Maybe 1 or 2 more years I'll be ready for 160, I don't know, but I'd be delighted to fight someone like Gennady."
Eddie Reynoso, Canelo's trainer, also insisted that they will only fight Golovkin at 155 pounds. However, Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya said that the Canelo-Golovkin fight should happen.
"That's a fight that should be made," De La Hoya said, referring to the Canelo-Golovkin bout. "Why not? Eventually it should be made. I have no reason not to make it. Canelo wants to fight him. A fight between Canelo and Golovkin - it has to happen, no reason for it not to."
