by Edward Chaykovsky

According to Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs), the constant badgering from critics will not force him into a showdown with WBC/IBO/WBA/IBF middleweight king Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs).

Earlier this year, the World Boxing Council named Golovkin as the mandatory challenger to Canelo's WBC middleweight crown.

The WBC set a short timeline for Canelo to reach and agreement with Golovkin - or else a purse bid would be ordered. Canelo was angered by incoming pressure from the WBC - so he vacated the title. The sanctioning body named Golovkin as their new champion by default.  

Golovkin is returning to the ring on September 10th, when he defends his middleweight titles against IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-0, 25KOs) at the O2 Arena in London.

Canelo is back in action one week later, when he challenges Liam Smith for the WBO junior middleweight title at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Whether it's the critics or the World Boxing Council, Canelo makes it clear that nobody will force his hand to make decisions before he's ready to make them.

He promises to fight Golovkin - sooner than later. They have a verbal agreement to face each other in September of 2017.

"The critics out there are going to use their power to try and make the fight, with good comments or bad comments, or criticising me for the fight not coming across. Big fights like this take time, negotiations take time, there are things behind the negotiation table that we need to get together and come across," Canelo said.

"Especially with the WBC organisation, they wanted to put in a timeline and their rules and input into the negotiation – this is a negotiation between promoters and fighters, not with the WBC, they can’t dictate and try and pressure me into this fight as soon as possible when I had other things to take care of in my personal life. The WBC wanted to put pressure on me, making timelines, I’m not going to let anybody pressure me – I’m a fighter and I had issues I needed to sort out first."

"Why does the WBC have to put on a timeline? There’s no reason for them to dictate anything in the negotiations for a fight or a fighter, there’s the belt but my personal issues were in court, we were in court for 24 days and first things first. But it’s going to happen, it’s a fight that has to happen, I want it to happen, the world wants it to happen. It’s just a matter of when it’s going to happen, it will happen soon and sooner rather than later."

Canelo rejects the idea that he's losing his fanbase. He feels there's a small group of fans who are on his case, but he's not overly concerned about that.

"My fans are going to support me through thick and thin, 100 per cent they’ll always support me. There’s a group of fans that are criticising me but my fans are there – that group of fans criticising me don’t concern me," Canelo said.