Alvarez-Golovkin could be anywhere — de la Hoya

LOS ANGELES : The mouthwatering middleweight showdown between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Kazakh knockout king Gennady Golovkin is on, and Oscar de la Hoya says a stream of global venues are interested.

“I really had several calls from around the world wanting to stage the fight,” de la Hoya said on Saturday night in Las Vegas, where the mega- fight was announced after Alvarez dismantled fellow Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

“I literally have a missed call from Dubai, I have a missed call from the (United Kingdom), where Anthony Joshua and ( Wladimir) Klitschko just sold out (a) 90,000seat stadium, so there’s interest from all over the world,” de la Hoya said.

Possible US venues for the September 16 bout include not only Vegas but also AT T Stadium in suburban Dallas, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

Last year, Alvarez beat Britain’s Liam Smith at the Texas venue before a crowd of more than 51,000.

Saturday night’s post- fight announcement -- with “Triple G” striding from ringside to join in -was the most electrifying moment at the T- Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where Alvarez dominated Chavez Jr. for 12 rounds in a nontitle bout fought at a catchweight of 164 pounds.

In the buildup to their bout, Chavez had chided Alvarez for failing to make a deal to fight Golovkin.

Alvarez dumped his World Boxing Council middleweight world belt last year when the sanctioning body gave him a 15- day window to make a fight with undefeated Golovkin, now owner of the WBC, World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation middleweight world titles.

Critics charged that Alvarez was afraid of the fight -- or that de la Hoya didn’t want to risk the top fighter in the Golden Boy stable.

But de la Hoya insisted an Alvarez- Golovkin bout was never in doubt.

“I’ve always stated that Triple G will happen in 2017, ever since a year ago when everyone was asking ‘ Why are you afraid of Triple G?’” he said. In fact, de la Hoya said, the deal was done even before the Chavez fight.

“We re s t a r t e d negotiat ing two weeks ago and it got done a few days ago,” he said. — AFP