WBC approves plan leading to ‘Canelo’ Alvarez/Gennady Golovkin fight in the fall

The World Boxing Council on Monday announced that it will allow middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and his mandatory challenger, Gennady Golovkin, to take one fight in the spring before an anticipated fall showdown.

“For a big fight like this -- and when you look at how long some of the other big fights took to get made, it’s not that long -- Gennady has a guarantee to fight ‘Canelo’ in the fall, or he’ll have the WBC belt,” said Tom Loeffler, Golovkin’s promoter. “So that seems like a good deal to take.”

Mexico’s Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 knockouts) is coming off an impressive Nov. 21 unanimous-decision victory over Miguel Cotto to claim the WBC belt, with a pay-per-view audience of 900,000.

WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman initially ruled that Alvarez would have just 15 days after the Cotto fight to begin negotiations with World Boxing Assn. and International Boxing Federation champion Golovkin. That was extended until this past weekend.

Eric Gomez, the Golden Boy Promotions executive who helped craft the agreement with Loeffler and Sulaiman, said the complexity of striking a deal for a super-fight contributed to the postponement.

“We had time constraints to get a deal together,” Gomez said. “It takes time for a mega-fight. Absolutely, it’s going to happen, but the terms have to be right and satisfied. And it helps us build up the fight.

“We have a great relationship with [Loeffler], and Canelo told us over the weekend, ‘I want to fight [Golovkin], that’s the fight I want.’ We told him we need time to get the right terms, ... we’ll get those done and the fight will happen sometime in the fall.”

In a prepared statement, Sulaiman said, “Canelo vs. GGG is one of the most important events in the sport of boxing, and their promotional companies have been communicating openly and in good faith. The ultimate goal of all involved is to make certain that the best conditions are secured for their fighters and the boxing world.”

In October, Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) scored an eighth-round technical knockout over then-IBF champion David Lemieux, selling out New York’s Madison Square Garden but drawing just 150,000 to the HBO pay-per-view broadcast.

Alvarez’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, said after his fighter’s victory last month that it might be best to let the bout “marinate.”

Loeffler said he’s interested in scheduling a March or April fight against someone such as secondary WBA champion Daniel Jacobs or the winner of Saturday’s World Boxing Organization middleweight title fight between Andy Lee and Billy Joe Saunders.

Another option is No. 1 IBF contender Tureano Johnson.

“We would prefer to unify,” Loeffler said, adding that he believes he can convince the Lee-Saunders winner or Jacobs to take the difficult bout. “The economics that Gennady brings now make it a completely different scenario,” he said.

Loeffler said Golovkin will not do a May 7 doubleheader with Alvarez, and that the timeframe of Golovkin’s next bout depends on the opponent’s availability, with New York, Los Angeles, Dallas or Las Vegas as possible sites.

Alvarez previously said his best fighting weight is about 154 pounds -- he fought Cotto at a 155-pound catch-weight limit -- but Gomez said weight no longer is an obstacle to fighting Golovkin at 160 pounds.

“We have a few ideas [for the May 7 opponent], but there’s nothing concrete,” Gomez said. “We’ll get together in January and talk about it.”