Gennady Golovkin's legacy is at stake in Canelo Alvarez rematch as negotiations are set to begin

Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin's promoter Tom Loeffler says negotiations for a rematch with Canelo Alvarez will be underway soon.

Golovkin defended his IBF, WBA, WBC, IBO middleweight titles by way of a split-decision draw against Canelo on Saturday (16 September) with the main talking point being the controversial 118-110 scorecard given by Adelaide Byrd.

The Kazakh (37-0-1 record in boxing), who many feel had just about edged the fight, was not happy with the result and is said to want an immediate rematch, ideally before May of 2018.

Loeffler has now revealed that discussions will take place on Friday (22 September), adding that the Golovkin camp expects negotiations to go better than the first time.

"We expect the negotiations to go better [than the first time], because Canelo has already fought 12 rounds with Gennady," Loeffler told ESPN Deportes, as quoted on BoxingScene.

"The box office will be the third most successful in boxing history (in Las Vegas), the best event after a fight involving Floyd Mayweather, and in pay-per-event they did well, the two surely got their bigger purses and also the fans want to see more of this combination.

"We will start the discussions tomorrow (Friday)."

With Canelo preferring to return to action in May, there is a likelihood that Golovkin faces someone else in the interim, ideally in December. However, Loeffler claims the Mexican is the preferred first choice and that Golovkin's legacy will be at stake in a potential rematch.

"Obviously there are options but what Golovkin wants is to face Canelo directly, it was his first big purse and it is his priority, the rematch," he added. "His legacy will be at stake, with this fight reaching 19 successful defenses, a lot of people believe he won the fight and this will mark his career."

"We credit Canelo for taking the fight, but we think he beat him well, so we will pursue the rematch and if he beats Canelo — then he will tie the 20 middleweight defense record of Bernard Hopkins and that would be something historical.

"We think we won, HBO had it right, eight rounds to four, the team is happy for the performance, Abel is happy, he thinks we won.

"Unfortunately the judges did not see it that way. Gennady wants the rematch as soon as possible, we do not want to wait too long. Canelo wants to fight in May, we hope to reach an agreement and GGG is willing to wait."