By Edward Chaykovsky

IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs) is NOT expecting to face Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs) in 2017.

Their respective promoters have a verbal agreement in place to match their fighters next September.

 Canelo will return to the ring on September 17th, when he challenges Liam Smith for the WBO junior middleweight world title at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Golovkin is going to defend his belts one week earlier, on September 10th, against IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook at the O2 Arena in London.

Canelo, who held the WBC middleweight title at the start of the year, was ordered by the World Boxing Council to face Golovkin. The two sides agreed to take one interim-fight and then collide in the fall.

The fall match never happened after Canelo vacated the title and announced that he was moving back to 154 to face Smith. The WBC would later name Golovkin as the full champion at 160. Both fighters will likely take a third fight at the end of the year. Canelo is looking at a date in December and Golovkin is going to fight in late November or December.

According to Golovkin, he expects Canelo to make a lowball offer when their teams sit down in 2017 - and of course Golovkin will reject it and then Canelo will walk away and claim that he was ready to do the fight and Golovkin wasn't.

“The next step is for Canelo to say, ‘I’m ready. I’m size A, [Golovkin] is size B, and I’ll give him $2 million,’” Golovkin said to the Los Angeles Times. “Then, [Alvarez] can say, ‘What? He won’t take that? He’s not ready? I’m ready.’ It’s a 50-50 fight, but that’s what he’s going to do. It’s a game to him.”