In 2017, their first meeting ended in a controversial draw. A year later, Canelo won a majority decision to take the middleweight crown. While the first two fights were at middleweight, Golovkin, who holds both the IBF and WBA titles at 72kg, will move up to super middleweight to fight Canelo for the undisputed title.
Over the years, the feud between the boxers has grown because, according to Canelo, Golovkin always talks nonsense about him.
"He's a fucking asshole," Canelo told TMZ Sports. - He's a hypocrite. He pretends to be a good person and thinks that he is different from others, but he is not. He talks a lot of nonsense about me. In public, he's like, "I respect him and his career." And then: "He's a bad boxer, he's a disgrace to Mexican boxing." I hate this bastard because of this."
In May, Canelo moved up to light heavyweight to fight WBA world champion Dmitry Bivol. Before the fight, Canelo was considered a big favorite, but lost to Bivol on points. Alvarez had the opportunity to exercise his right to an immediate rematch, but he decided to continue his planned trilogy against Golovkin. However, Canelo would like to face Bivol in a rematch next year.
"I'm 100% focused on the Golovkin fight because it's a dangerous fight," Canelo says. “But I’m 100% looking forward to the second fight with Bivol.”