All signs were pointing to Floyd Mayweather returning to the ring to face UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor on Sept. 16.
Thankfully for sports fans, the proposed bout won’t be happening on Mexican Independence Day: Instead, we are getting a fight that will be competitive and one many want to see.
After making easy work of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Saturday, Canelo Alvarez announced he will be fighting unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin on Sept. 16 at a site to be determined with the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the likely destination according to sources close to Sporting News.
If the date sounds familiar, it should. That was the targeted date for Mayweather vs. McGregor. Now, with Canelo vs. GGG taking place on Sept. 16, that plan is longer in effect.
“We just lost our date to Canelo and GGG, but that’s a good fight,” White told Fight Hub. “I’ll be at that one too.”
Fans were universally excited to hear the announcement of Canelo vs. GGG, considering how easily the Mexican star disposed of Chavez Jr. Simply put, the Canelo-GGG fight is a more exciting fight for fans — much more than Mayweather vs. McGregor. Now that he lost the date for his biggest star against the best boxer of this generation, the UFC president, when asked about who would win between Alvarez and Golovkin, feels that fans will be the real winners.
“The fans win that fight,” White said. “That’s going to be a real fight. That’s going to be a fun one.”
White gets it: He came from a boxing background before he got started with the UFC. He knows that if Alvarez and Golovkin put on the performance many expect them to, then it will make a potential Mayweather-McGregor bout even bigger — if it actually ever happens.
