After trouncing Julio César Chávez Jr. in what was billed as the biggest fight of the year, Canelo Álvarez accepted what truly will be the most important showdown of 2017. On September 16–Mexican Independence Day–Canelo will face off against Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin (a.k.a. GGG), widely considered one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world and a beloved figure from his native Kazakhstan to Mexico. Boxing fans have been yearning for this fight for years, and after false starts and belt forfeits, it will finally occur at the end of the summer.
But where will such a massive fight take place? That’s the question currently plaguing fight promoter Oscar De La Hoya and his company, Golden Boy Promotions. Since the fight’s official announcement–in the middle of the ring after Canelo’s victory over Chávez Jr.–rumors have placed the fight everywhere from the same building (Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena), to massive stadiums like Dallas’s AT&T Stadium, to foreign locations like London’s Wembley Stadium and the formidable Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
While there isn’t a true front-runner yet, De La Hoya told the Los Angeles Times that Magic Johnson, part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has offered to host the event at Dodger Stadium, located in the Elysian Park neighborhood of the most Mexican-populated city in the United States. Dodger Stadium, and its 60-thousand fan capacity, would be a fitting venue for a fight of such importance, but that’s just one of a handful of likely locations for Canelo vs. GGG.
Could the fight move overseas to London, site of the stellar Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko fight last month? Could it truly become a battle for the heart of Mexican boxing fans by settling in the fortress Azteca, site of so many important El Tri matches? Or will Golden Boy play it safe and sell out one of the Las Vegas arenas in order to provide an intimate and raucuous atmosphere?
Wherever it takes place, Mexicans and boxing fans will surely all be glued to their televisions, projectors, or computers as the two best middleweights in the world face off for weight division supremacy.