World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman said the highly-anticipated showdown between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin should happen next year.

Alvarez is the reigning WBC middleweight champion, while Golovkin is the mandatory challenger. WBC allowed both fighters to have one more fight in the first half of 2016, but they should collide in September or run risk of losing their status as champion and top contender.

Sulaiman said that he is expecting another big year for boxing. After the long-proposed showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather happened this year, along with the title bout between Alvarez and Miguel Cotto, the WBC president is quite confident that they can make the Alvarez-Golovkin bout happen in 2016.

"We are going to work hard to make sure that the fights between the best will take place in 2016, and the most anticipated of them all is between Canelo and Golovkin," Sulaiman said via BoxingScene. "We could see them face each other in September in the United States. They both have an optional and then they must face each other."

Alvarez, who holds a perfect 46-1-1 record with 32 knockouts, is coming off a masterful win over former WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. The Mexican boxing superstar, whose only loss came at the hands of Floyd Mayweather in 2013, has yet to reveal his plan for his next fight.

On the other hand, Golovkin and his camp are already looking for possible foes. The 33-year-old Kazakh, who is undefeated in 34 fights and has knocked out 31 of his past opponents, could face Billy Joe Saunders in a title unification bout.

Saunders, who owns a 23-0 record with 12 knockout victories, won the World Boxing Organization middleweight title via a majority decision victory against Andy Lee earlier this month in Manchester.

Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions confirmed that they are eyeing a unification bout against Saunders and that they have already made a "significant offer" to promoter Frank Warren. As for the fight date and venue, Loeffler said the bout could be staged in April in New York.

"A unification fight would be our first priority, it would be our top priority and we made a significant offer to Frank Warren for that fight," Loeffler said via BoxingScene. "Our offer was for BJ to fight in the U.S. April sounds right and the venue is still under consideration but MSG is very interested in that fight."

Golovkin -- the current International Boxing Federation, International Boxing Organization and World Boxing Association middleweight champion -- fought at MSG in October, where he scored an eighth-round knockout win against challenger David Lemieux.

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