HBO boxing broadcaster Jim Lampley presses for Canelo-Golovkin bout

Thirty years of broadcasting boxing’s biggest bouts earns HBO’s Jim Lampley the right to help set the agenda when promoters and others lose sight of the sport’s best interest.

And that’s what Lampley did Wednesday on his HBO show “The Fight Game,” leaving no question that fight fans should not have to endure a similar six-year torture chamber of waiting that took place before Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fought last year in an anticlimactic showing.

Now, with unbeaten 34-year-old Gennady Golovkin (35-0, 32 knockouts) wearing the World Boxing Assn. and International Boxing Federation middleweight belts and the sport’s most popular fighter, Mexico’s Canelo Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs), holding the World Boxing Council crown after his massive sixth-round knockout of Amir Khan on Saturday, Lampley closed with a powerful commentary urging that the bout happen this year.

“A final word,” Lampley said. “Several months ago, Canelo Alvarez’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, accurately expressed that boxing is still struggling to escape the painful hangover from Mayweather-Pacquaio, a fight which attracted millions of general public consumers at spectacularly inflated prices and left them with a profoundly negative impression.

“And everyone in boxing agrees the entertainment level would have been far higher if that fight had taken place years earlier.

“The profit motive, the desire to push demand higher and higher, ultimately interfered with good business. Now, once again, boxing fans have identified the fight they want to see, and once again they have been asked to wait.

“Five months ago, De La Hoya and Canelo lobbied the governing body that controls the fighter’s middleweight belt and negotiated an agreement with Gennady Golovkin and his promoter to bypass a mandatory defense against ‘Triple G.’ So Canelo predictably beat the smaller Amir Khan. Now, even as the governing body threatens to strip Canelo of his title and hand it to Triple G, there has been a widespread expectation that Golden Boy might again push Canelo-Golovkin further off into the future.

“When boxing promoters bristle at the growing popularity of mixed martial arts, they should acknowledge to themselves that UFC in particular has succeeded in convincing fans that when a fight is logical and ripe, they will see it right away. Boxing fans want to see Canelo-Triple G right now. Truth is, you wanted to see it last Saturday night.

“The result was that the aftermath of Canelo vs. Khan had little to do with Canelo vs. Khan. First, both Khan and his trainer Virgil Hunter made clear in the ring they strongly feel Canelo is honor bound to fight Golovkin next. Then, at the post-fight news conference, reporters pressed the issue relentlessly, and the result was both Alvarez and De la Hoya stepped further forward than ever before.

“The fighter even expressed that there will be no dispute over weight, meaning he is ready to offer a deal to weigh in at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds. Music to Triple G’s ears.

“The distinguishing feature of Oscar De La Hoya’s ring career was adventurous risk. He didn’t shy away from dangerous opponents, he ran toward them. Suddenly, now it appears Canelo Alvarez wants to emulate his promoter. Nothing could be more propitious for boxing right now than the hope -- and you might even call it optimism -- that the sport’s biggest possible fight will take place this September.

“No last names necessary. Get ready for Canelo-Triple G.”

De La Hoya on Sunday reached out to Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler, and their discussions continued as of Wednesday, according to an official connected to the talks but unauthorized to discuss them publicly.