By Steve Kim

So how are things progressing as it relates to the negotiations for a potential rematch between unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) and Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs), who fought to a draw on September 16th?

Tom Loeffler of GGG Promotions said during an appearance on 'the Next Round' podcast - ''I do think we're getting closer. I'm in regular contact with (Golden Boy Promotions president) Eric Gomez. It just seems like it's coming down to a final couple of points. So hopefully we can get it finalized and hopefully we can go to a big venue. But we need to finalize the the fight, first.

"It seems that 'Canelo's side definitely wants to lead the direction as to where the fight is going to happen. But once the fight is done and if the fight is done then we'll probably work in getting the best possible location."

The initial encounter between the two took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The hope is that this rematch takes place on May 5th.

As for any deadline in making this a reality, Loeffler explained - "There's never been a hard deadline. Part of the hold up was that 'Canelo' was out of town for an extended period of time after the fight. I think Eric and I could've probably finalized the fight within about two weeks of the last fight but we had to wait for 'Canelo' to get his feedback and now Gennady is in Kazakhstan. So it's a little bit of a back-and-forth on logistics for guys that have their teams internationally. We're not all at one table sitting here in L.A."

But Loeffler makes it clear that he's very hopeful the second chapter of GGG-Canelo will come to fruition.

"Put it this way, I haven't seen one issue that makes it seem that the fight isn't going to happen.  So if that were the case I'd be a lot more concerned," he stated.

"Although, like I said, it's clearly not finalized, yet. But we're still very optimistic that both sides can agree on the terms and make this happen."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.