Former boxing world champion and current pundit Tony Bellew believes Canelo Alvarez should still aim to fight Gennady Golovkin in September.

For the longest time now fans have been talking about Canelo Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin 3 following on from the success of their first two bouts. In their first meeting back in September 2017, a controversial split draw was the result despite many pundits believing GGG had done enough to secure the win. Then, twelve months later, Canelo just about managed to edge past his rival with a majority decision triumph in yet another close fight.

They’ve continued to circle one another ever since until earlier this year when it appeared as if we were getting close to an agreement for the third collision between them.

Unfortunately, the reported deal apparently hinged on Canelo getting past Dmitry Bivol in their WBA light heavyweight title fight last Saturday night - which he was unable to do.

According to Tony Bellew, though, that shouldn’t stand in the way of this fight still happening in early autumn as planned.

“For me, the Golovkin trilogy just got a tiny bit more intriguing despite what I’ve said in this column just a few weeks ago after ‘GGG’ beat Ryota Murata. Then, it looked like Canelo would be a huge favourite in that fight, but will Saturday’s loss against Bivol make Canelo a little more vulnerable going into his next fight?”

“The Golovkin fight in September for all the belts at 168lbs is the perfect fight for him to prove that he’s still a dominant force in the sport and then he can shift his focus back to Bivol. If he can emerge from both fights victorious then he’ll shake the heartache of last weekend, but defeat against either man may mean the scars from Saturday’s loss will be visible for quite a while.”

What does Canelo want?

Canelo Alvarez is a competitor at heart and he isn’t going to take the Bivol loss lying down. The 31-year-old wants an immediate rematch with his Russian foe and even though there’s probably more money to be made elsewhere, he’s daring to be great once again.

Golovkin, meanwhile, is just waiting for the call after he managed to stop Ryōta Murata in the ninth round of their fight in Japan.