Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennadiy Golovkin III isn’t the middleweight title unification clash that Bernard Hopkins wants to see the most.
During a recent Instagram Live chat, the boxing legend loved a fan’s suggestion about Alvarez — a title-unification bout with Jermall Charlo, instead.
“That’s what I want to see,” said Hopkins, a partner at Golden Boy Promotions, which handles Alvarez. “Whoever is not on their game, they will experience an ‘L’ or a knockdown, knockout drag-out type of ending.”
Not only that, but Hopkins believes that the fight can present itself sooner than fans might think.
“That fight there is a buildup less than a year and a half [away] or sooner,” he said. “That’s the fight that I believe is going to materialize as a fight that everybody is going to be asking for. That fight there is … both of those guys have weapons in their arsenal that is danger, deadly for anybody in that weight division.”
Indeed, Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) and Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) have a combined record of 83-1-2, 58 KOs. So, one could see its potential on paper alone.
Hopkins downplayed Alvarez-GGG III during the same chat, as he believes that Alvarez has learned enough from their first two battles to end a third fight “early.”
“You really want to see that?” he shot back to a fan clamoring about it. “Listen, I don’t think anything is going to happen any different [from their second fight].
“Eh, yes it is,” he added in a quick change of heart. “I think that Canelo has the blueprint — definitely [from] the second fight — to end it early. OK, you beat him twice, now you knocked him out the third time.”
After the two rivals fought to a controversial split draw in September 2017, Alvarez scored a majority-decision win in their rematch the following September.