De La Hoya says he wants Golovkin-Lemieux winner to face Cotto-Canelo winner

By Boxing News - 07/27/2015 - Comments

golovkin9999(Photo credit: Will Hart, K2 Promotions) By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya says that when he made the fight between his fighter IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs) and WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) for October 17th, he made it with the thought in mind to have a mini-middleweight tournament with the winner of the Golovkin-Lemieux fight to face the winner of the November 21st fight between WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and former WBA/WBC 154lb champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

De La Hoya says if he gets his way, there will be an ultimate winner of those fights. However, De La Hoya has no control over Cotto, who is promoted by Roc Nation Sports, and it’s unclear whether Cotto will choose to face the Golovkin-Lemieux winner if he gets past Canelo.

Cotto is his own person, and he doesn’t seem to be the type of fighter who can be pressured into a fight that he doesn’t want to take.

“It’s going to be bombs away. This is the type of fight that fans deserve to watch,” De La Hoya said to ESPN.com. “This fight wasn’t difficult to make at all. Lemieux wanted to fight Gennady Golovkin. He is the best in the middleweight division. He’s an animal. He hits hard. He hits like a mule. It’s literally going to be bombs away, so the fans are in for a treat. When you’re on HBO, you’re going to be a super star, and you have to start somewhere. They have the knockout power, and they have the skills”

Not everyone who fights on HBO is a superstar. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. HBO only has one superstar in boxing that they televise on their network, and that’s Manny Pacquiao. He’s on his way out of the sport after getting a big payday fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May. Canelo is an unproven fighter still, and it’s doubtful that he’ll ever be a true superstar because he’s not able to dominate his opposition the way that superstars do.

If De La Hoya can match up the winner of the Golovkin vs. Lemieux fight against the winner of the Cotto vs. Canelo fight, it would be a huge accomplishment for him. I think Cotto would be willing to fight the winner of the Golovkin-Lemieux fight if it’s Lemieux that wins it, but not Golovkin. If Golovkin totally destroys Lemieux in a few rounds, then there’s no way I see Cotto fighting Golovkin under those circumstances, even if the Golovkin-Lemieux fight brings in over 1 million pay-per-view buys. I can’ see Cotto taking the fight against him due to the danger involved.

“Once that bell rings, they’re going to be swinging for the fences,” De La Hoya said. “Gennady Golovkin has been fighting on HBO. His record shows 33-0 with 30 knockouts. He’s been fighting the best. David Lemieux has been fighting on HBO. He’s been knocking out the very best. This is the perfect fight in order to catapult your career and become that pay-per-view attraction. When we made Golovkin vs. Lemieux, we were thinking about Cotto and Canelo, can they fight each other? Can you do a round robin? Can you do a tournament? If it is up to me, and it is up to me, it will happen.”

Like I said, the only fighter that De La Hoya has any control over is Canelo. Even with Canelo, De La Hoya doesn’t have 100 percent control over him. He’s taken fights against Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout that De La Hoya didn’t want him to take. But there’s a big difference between those guys and Golovkin. I have a feeling that Canelo is going to shy away from fighting Golovkin because a knockout loss to him would put a huge damper on Canelo’s career by creating a lasting memory in the minds of boxing fans.



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