By Dan Ambrose: In case WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) fails to get a fight against WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) in November, Golovkin is now saying he’d be more than willing to fight former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr next if he’s willing.
Golovkin and Chavez Jr were in negotiations to fight recently, but Chavez Jr didn’t sign the contract. There was a huge guarantee for Chavez Jr whether he won or lost. Rumors are that Chavez Jr would have made a career high $6 million as part of a 2-fight, $12 million deal, and yet he didn’t sign.
“I’m ready for this [Chavez Jr] fight. I want this fight. I need this fight,” Golovkin said at the post-fight press conference last Saturday night.
That would be a great fight if it could happen, but the weight would be an issue that would need to be worked out. Golovkin would need to likely face Chavez Jr at a catch-weight or possibly even agree to the fight taking place at the full weight for the super middleweight class.
If Golovkin is willing to fight Chavez Jr, then it opens the door for boxing fans to start pressuring Golovkin more to face guys like Andre Ward, a fighter that also fights on HBO. That’s a fight that obviously doesn’t interest Golovkin’s management as much as a fight against the likes of Chavez Jr, Canelo or Cotto, because Ward doesn’t bring in huge ratings on HBO. There’s no way of making a Golovkin-Ward fight a pay-per-view bout. It’s not going to happen. It would be a better fight than Golovkin’s fight last Saturday against Daniel Geale, but it still wouldn’t be a big enough fight to justify making it a pay-per-view fight like you’d see if Golovkin were to fight Chavez Jr, Canelo or Cotto.
“This is a question for Chavez. I know Bob Arum put a big guarantee in front of him,” Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler said at the post-fight press conference. “He also put a guarantee in case he lost. Chavez didn’t sign the contract. We don’t know all the intricacies of that promotional deal. We know there was a lot of money on the table. When he [Golovkin] says it’s not his [Chavez Jr] time, he can’t force that fight to happen. I can’t force that fight to happen. The other fighter has to sign the contract. So what he [Golovkin] means is he’s going to go step by step; If Chavez sign, Cotto won’t sign, we have a commitment from HBO that they are going to keep him [Golovkin] him very active and give him [fight] dates. I was my prediction for this fight that it would be the highest rating for any boxing show in America. He’s willing to fight anyone. We can’t force them [Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Cotto] to fight. He’s giving the fans what they want.”
Chavez Jr isn’t going to get too many better fights than Golovkin. He obviously can face Canelo or Cotto, but Golovkin is one of the big names that Chavez Jr will need to face sooner or later.
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