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Floyd Mayweather Jr.: ‘Stay Away’ From Gennady Golovkin, Floyd Advises Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, Report Says

By Jonathan Vankin
Published on: 08:48 PST, Apr 28, 2016

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has dispensed some advice to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez when it comes to fighting undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. And that advice is, “stay away!”

That, anyway, is the word from another potential future opponent for Alvarez — or Mayweather if the 49-0 retired champion decides to make a comeback. The report comes from 27-year-old Keith “One Time” Thurman, who, at an unbeaten 26-0, currently holds the World Boxing Association version of the welterweight championship.

“Triple G” Golovkin, fighting last Saturday at the Forum in Inglewood, California, ran his knockout string to 22 straight, and 32 overall in 35 fights without a loss, when he flattened previously unbeaten Dominic Wade inside of two rounds.

“It’s obvious who the pound-for-pound Number One is,” Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez said after the KO of Wade. “I don’t think there’s any fighter in any era who’s dominated his division at a championship-level like Gennady. He makes good fighters look amateurish.”

As for Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, the Mexican superstar — whose only defeat in 48 fights came against Mayweather in September of 2013 — is scheduled to fight Britain’s Amir Khan on May 7 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

But if the 25-year-old Alvarez defeats Khan, 29, as he is favored to do, the World Boxing Council has given him two weeks to commence negotiations for a fight with Golovkin in the fall — or be stripped of the middleweight title he won by defeating veteran Miguel Cotto in November.

“That’s a good fight. The fans are going to love that fight,” Keith Thurman said in an interview with the boxing news site Fighthub.com.

“It’s going to be an explosive fight. You’ve got two of the biggest punchers in the world of boxing right now. Floyd Mayweather advised Canelo to stay away from Triple G, and there’s plenty of other people that would agree.”

Watch the interview with Keith Thurman in the video below.

So the question is, will Alvarez follow through with his commitment to fight Golovkin, or will he quite literally “stay away,” giving up his WBC title to find an easier opponent?

Another influential figure in the boxing world, promoter Bob Arum, also believes that “stay away” is good advice for Alvarez, with regard to a fight against Golovkin, which Arum feels would be a significant career mistake for Alvarez.

“All the clamor for ‘Canelo’-Golovkin, you think that’s an even fight?” Arum said recently.

“Canelo is good, but Triple-G with Canelo is a massacre. It’s one thing to lose a decision to Mayweather. It’s another thing to get counted out by Golovkin.”

According to a report by Los Angeles Times boxing correspondent Lance Pugmire, Alvarez may attempt to wriggle out of his obligation to fight Golovkin — assuming that “Canelo” prevails over Khan one week from Saturday — by insisting on fighting for the 160 pound championship at a maximum “catch weight” of 155.

The Alvarez-Khan fight will be fought at 155, on the insistence of Alvarez.

According to Sanchez, that’s a condition on which Golovkin won’t bend.

“Why does he want to give in to a diva, to somebody who’s trying to change boxing?” Sanchez told Pugmire. “It’s the principle of the thing. [Golovkin] won’t come down one ounce. It’s the 160-pound belt and that’s what he’s going to fight at. If [Alvarez] won’t, then he can leave the belt.”

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But representatives for Alvarez told the Times that it is Golovkin who is trying to change the conditions of the proposed fight.

“Team Golovkin is asking ‘Canelo’ to move up to another weight class to face him, yet they didn’t accept moving up one weight class to face Andre Ward,” said Eric Gomez, president of Golden Boy Promotions which promotes Alvarez.

As for Floyd Mayweather Jr., he has claimed that a fight against Gennady Golovkin would be “easy work,” but also said that if he did come out of retirement, he would refuse to fight Golovkin.

[Photos by Patrick McDermott, Al Bello/Getty Images]

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