Lawsuit against Canelo Alvarez holds up talks on fight with Gennady Golovkin

One of the reasons discussion about a Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin fight has gone cold is because Alvarez is in a Miami courtroom this week with his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, who’s arguing that he didn’t steal Alvarez from a smaller promoter years ago.

In the civil trial that began Monday, promoter Felix “Tuto” Zabala Jr. and his company, All-Star Boxing, seek punitive damages, contending that All-Star Boxing signed a four-year deal with Alvarez in 2008 and that De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions swiped Alvarez the next year.

Zabala told boxingscene.com Monday that “we want to set a precedent here, a lesson to be learned that you have to honor your contract once you enter into a legally binding agreement.”

Alvarez fought nine times under the All-Star Boxing banner, then left for Golden Boy in 2009. The lawsuit followed in 2011 but a court date was delayed by Alvarez’s commitments to fight dates, including the third-richest bout in history -- his 2013 loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Although Golden Boy’s attorneys and executives have declined comment on the case, it’s believed they’ll counter All-Star Boxing’s claims by maintaining that Alvarez signed the deal with Zabala under duress.

A Golden Boy spokesman described All-Star Boxing’s case as “a money grab.”

“We look forward to clearly demonstrating that this case has no merit,” Golden Boy spokesman Stefan Friedman said, adding that All-Star Boxing is “looking to cash in on Canelo’s success.”

The court case could last until early June.

Meanwhile, Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, is working in Europe and isn’t expected to return to Los Angeles until early June.

The World Boxing Council last week stripped Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 knockouts) of his middleweight belt and gave it to mandatory challenger Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs), who also wears the World Boxing Assn. and International Boxing Federation versions of the division title.

Alvarez rejected a mandated purse split of 55%-45% in his favor after he sold around four times as many pay-per-views in his May 7 knockout of England’s Amir Khan than Golovkin, 34, did in his October victory over David Lemieux.

The parties will now discuss a revised purse split more in Alvarez’s favor, and the more popular Alvarez, 25, might also seek, to fight at a catch-weight below the middleweight limit of 160 pounds.

If they can strike a deal this summer, AT&T Stadium outside Dallas could host the bout Sept. 17. If not, the fighters are expected to seek alternative foes with an eye toward a May 2017 bout.

“The negotiations are not dead,” Loeffler said. “Canelo is still the priority for Gennady, and we’ll try to do what we can from our side to make that fight. It’s the biggest fight in boxing. Golden Boy and Canelo are dealing with that lawsuit now. They need to focus on that. “It’s a fight we want to make and give to boxing fans.”But there’s still plenty of time left to make the fight for September. It’s just a matter of sitting down when they’re finished and seeing if we can make all the pieces fit together.

“It’s a fight we want to make and give to boxing fans.”

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