By Dan Ambrose: Kenny Porter, the trainer/father for former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter, doesn’t see the October 17th unification clash between WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) and IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs) as a truly pay-per-view worthy fight in his opinion.

While Kenny does believe that it’s a decent scrap for Golovkin, he doesn’t recognize it as a PPV fight due to Lemieux’s flimsy record right now. Kenny notes that Lemieux hasn’t fought very many top names since turning pro, and he lost to a fighter with 10 defeats in the past in Marco Antonio Rubio four years ago in 2011.

For that reason he doesn’t see the Golovkin-Lemieux fight as being worthy of being televised on HBO pay-per-view on October 17th.

“Gennady Golovkin has a decent fight coming up. I wouldn’t say it’s pay-per-view,” Kenny Porter said via thaboxingvoice. “I looked at the record of the kid [Lemieux], and I said ‘hold up.’ I didn’t see a lot of champions that he’s fought. He didn’t have a lot of big names or any substantial B-level fighters on that list. One of his losses was to a guy with 10 losses [Marco Antonio Rubio]. It’s not pay-per-view worthy.”

The Golovkin vs. Lemieux fight will be staged at Madison Square Garden in New York. It’s expected to have a good crowd. It remains to be seen if it’ll sell out the Garden. That would be a big accomplishment if it did. The fight also isn’t expected to bring in a huge amount of pay-per-view buys on HBO.

Even Lemieux’s own promoter Oscar De La Hoya admits that the fight likely won’t bring in a huge amount of PPV buys because this is the first fight for either of them to be shown on PPV. The loser of this fight will likely be shut out of the PPV process for a while until they build themselves back up to being a viable contender if not a world champion.

HBO sees the Golovkin-Lemieux fight as being PPV worthy, which is why the fight is being televised on pay TV. They obviously have noted that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto have only brought in a little over 300,000 PPV buys themselves when they’ve been the A-level fighter in their own PPV cards without Floyd Mayweather Jr. and/or Manny Pacquiao to help bolster their PPV numbers.

If Canelo and Cotto could only reach 300K for their own PPV fights, then it’s quite possible that Golovkin can reach those same numbers for his fight against Lemieux, because his fight is arguably more entertaining than the mismatches we’ve seen from Cotto against the likes of an injured and old Sergio Martinez, and for Canelo against Alfredo Angulo.

This is a big test for Golovkin in terms of his drawing power. If he can bring in a good number of PPV buys on HBO against Lemieux, then we could see him in many more fights on PPV in the future. Of course, Golovkin has to win the fight and look good doing so. He’s not going to be a PPV fixture if he gets knocked out by Lemieux or if he struggles and looks poor.

HBO is obviously banking on Golovkin shining in this fight and impressing enough for him to possibly be their next PPV attraction. Golovkin will get a lot of help in becoming a PPV star if he can get a fight against Cotto or Canelo in his next fight. If he can take one of their scalps and add it to his knockout collection, then it’s likely going to take Golovkin to the next level. From there, he can look to fight the other middleweight champions like Daniel Jacobs and Andy Lee. Golockin could also look to face the loser of the Canelo-Cotto fight as well if he can get past the winner.