It's time for Canelo Alvarez to fight Gennady Golovkin

LAS VEGAS – It’s time, Oscar De La Hoya. It’s time.

No more Amir Khans, no more talk of Miguel Cotto, no more dreams of Manny Pacquiao.

It’s time for Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez to face Gennady Golovkin.

A showdown between the two best middleweights in the world has marinated long enough. On Saturday, Alvarez picked up a predictable knockout win over Khan, a blown-up welterweight making his first foray above 147 pounds. Chinny at 140 pounds, Khan, shockingly, proved unable to take a big shot at 155. An overhand right hand in the sixth round sent Khan to the canvas, where he lay unconscious for several minutes.

After checking on Khan, Alvarez hustled to the ring ropes, where he motioned for Golovkin, sitting ringside, to step into the ring.

“Like we say in Mexico, 'We don't [expletive] around,' ” Alvarez said. “I don't fear anyone. We don't come to play in this sport; I fear no one in this sport…right now I will put on the gloves again.”

Behind him De La Hoya smiled widely. Alvarez is De La Hoya’s protégé, and the willingness to take on all comers is shared DNA. De La Hoya’s career was defined by his matchups with Julio Cesar Chavez, Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad. He won some, lost others and retired respected by everyone.

Alvarez is the same. He fought Austin Trout when no one wanted him to, stepped in the ring with Floyd Mayweather, went toe-to-toe with Erislandy Lara. There is no fear in Canelo, just a burning desire to be great.

He needs De La Hoya to get him there. He needs De La Hoya to get him Golovkin.

All week De La Hoya sounded like a man with little interest in matching Alvarez with Golovkin, the unified middleweight titleholder, the 160-pound wrecking ball who has knocked out 22 consecutive opponents. "Let it marinate,” De La Hoya insisted, an argument that made little sense. Alvarez is boxing’s money man, but Golovkin sells out arenas in Los Angeles and New York, while routinely generating network-best ratings on HBO. Yet time after time De La Hoya insisted that the fight wasn’t ready.

It wasn’t just De La Hoya, either. Bernard Hopkins, a partner in Golden Boy Promotions, suggested that Golovkin should move up to 175 pounds and fight Sergey Kovalev. Never mind that Kovalev has two fights on the books, a summer showdown with Isaac Chilemba and a fall date with Andre Ward. It was an absurd notion, if for no other reason than Golovkin was Alvarez’s mandatory challenger and would add another title to his growing collection if Alvarez refused to fight him.

Here’s the thing though: Alvarez wants to fight Golovkin. The greats seek out the biggest challenges, and Alvarez understands Golovkin is a mountain of one. His post-fight outburst wasn’t emotional, as Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez suggested, but the true feelings of a fighter with an insatiable appetite for marquee moments.

De La Hoya had that as a fighter. As a promoter? Well...

Late Saturday night, De La Hoya faced a pack of reporters and said all the right things. He told Golovkin to make sure he picked up the phone tomorrow, because he would be calling. He said weight — a point of contention for Golovkin — would not be an issue. He said Golden Boy was hell-bent on making the best fights, and Canelo-Golovkin was the fight everyone was begging for.

Does he mean it? Negotiations with Golovkin should be easy. Golovkin will take the smaller percentage of the purse, will agree to any venue and will happily accept a B-side position on everything else. He’s adamant the weight limit be 160 pounds — “Not one ounce lower,” Sanchez said — but, again, De La Hoya has said that won’t be an issue, and the 175 pounds Canelo steps into the ring at suggests it shouldn’t.

But there are other factors. De La Hoya is a businessman now, and putting his cash cow into the lion’s den comes with risk. A loss is one thing; a concussive, Khan-like loss might not be. Khan is 29 and positioned to return to 147 pounds. But a loss like he took can cause irrevocable damage. De La Hoya indicated he would have significant financial demands — “I have four aces; they have a pair of two’s,” De La Hoya said — and he could scuttle a fight by insisting for a split even Golovkin can’t accept.

Let’s hope he doesn’t. De La Hoya has done some remarkable things since retaking control of his company two years ago. He has restored Golden Boy’s relationship with HBO and proved to be more than just the public face of the company. This is a big moment for Alvarez, but perhaps a bigger one for De La Hoya. For months he has vowed to be a driving force for the revival of boxing. Now is the time to prove it.