By Allan Fox: WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golokvin’s promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions says he can work with HBO to put together an HBO financed deal to put together a Golovkin vs. Andy Lee unification fight. Lee, 30, recently fought to a 12 round draw against former WBO 160lb champion Peter Quillin last Saturday night on April 11th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
While some boxing fans thought that Lee was robbed in that fight, it was clear to a lot of fans that Lee had simply given up too many rounds in the early part of the fight for him to get the ‘W’ in the fight. Lee was knocked down twice by Quillin in getting dropped in the 1st and 3rd rounds.
There’s no word whether Quillin and Lee will face each other again, or if Lee will look to make a mandatory defense against his #1 WBO mandatory challenger Billy Joe Saunders. If Lee does want a unification fight, he’s going to need to get some help from Saunders to make that happen. Lee’s mandatory defense is due, and he’s not going to be able to bypass the Saunders fight without him giving the green light to it. Of course, Lee can vacate the WBO title or let the World Boxing Organization strip him of his title in order to face Golovkin, but that’s not likely.
“Asked about a @AndyLeeBoxing/@GGGBoxing unification, @TomLoeffler1 says he could put together a strong HBO-backed financial deal for Lee,” Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated said on his twitter.
This is great news. However, HBO would have to come up with more money than what Lee could make in a title defense against Saunders because that’s a fight that would likely do well in the UK due to Lee having the WBO title in his possession. Saunders is a pretty tough fighter, but he’s clearly the path of least resistance. If Lee wants to hold onto his WBO title, then he’d be better off going in the direction of Saunders rather than facing Golovkin. That’s a bad match-up for Lee. He doesn’t have the chin to be taking Golovkin’s best power shots for 12 rounds.
The big difference between Golovkin and Lee’s last opponent Peter Quillin is that Golovkin wouldn’t let up on Lee if he hurt him with a shot. Golovkin also wouldn’t sit back and throw occasional pot shots the way that Quillin was doing against Lee. That was a poor game plan by Quillin because it enabled Lee to keep in the fight.
Quillin defended himself after the fight by saying that he didn’t want to go on the attack mode against Lee and potentially wind up getting hit with a shot that he doesn’t see coming. Golovkin won’t have the same cautiousness that Quillin showed, as he feels like he can take whatever shots that Lee lands in order to get his own big power shots in.
HBO will need to come up with a huge financial deal to keep Lee from choosing to take the Saunders fight instead of facing Golovkin.
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