Golovkin-Saunders deal must be done by Jan.19

By Boxing News - 01/11/2016 - Comments

Boxing: Golovkin vs LemieuxBy Dan Ambrose: The negotiations between IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s promoters at K2 Promotions and WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders’ promoter Frank Warren must be completed by January 19th of next week or else the International Boxing Federation will order Golovkin to face his #1 IBF mandatory challenger Tureano Johnson (19-1, 13 KOs) next, according to Dan Rafael.

As of now, the IBF will permit Golovkin to face the 26-year-old Saunders next in a unification fight provided that the deal is reached by next week on 1/19 at the latest. If the deal still isn’t reached by that time, then the IBF will order Golovkin to face the 31-year-old Tureano next.

The result of that will mean that Golovkin will need to make a decision about whether he wants to keep the IBF badly enough to take that fight against Tureano, or if he wants to give up the title so that he can still face Saunders in a unification fight with his IBO and WBA titles being on the line. I don’t think Golovkin will do that though. He wants ALL the middleweight belts, and he’s not likely going to give up his IBF title that he just won off of David Lemieux in order to face Saunders for his WBO title.

Tureano become Golovkin’s IBF mandatory challenger last October with an easy 12 round unanimous decision win over Eamonn O’Kane on their HBO pay-per-view card from Madison Square Garden in New York.

Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler is working hard to try and iron out a deal with Saunders’ promoter Frank Warren to get the fight done. Saunders recently said to the media that he’ll fight Golovkin if he agrees to come to the UK to fight him there. It’s unclear if Saunders was serious about that or not. If so, then there’s a possibility that Golovkin will need to travel to get a shot at Saunders’ WBO middleweight title.

If Golovkin can beat Saunders, he’d then have 3 of the 4 titles in the 160lb division, and this in turn might help him get a bigger split of the purse for his potential unification fight later this year against WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in September 2016.

You’ve got to believe that Canelo, 25, will insist on taking the lion’s share of the purse in a fight against Golovkin, but the money split could be a little closer if Golovkin goes into the negotiations with 3 of the 4 titles in the middleweight division in his possession. If nothing else, it will give the Canelo-Golovkin fight more meaning if all the titles are up for grabs rather than just 3 of them.

Golovkin will have a big advantage in punching power against Saunders, and it probably won’t matter if he’s giving up home advantage to the British fighter. Golovkin will try his best to make sure that the fight doesn’t go to the scorecards like Saunders’ last fight against Andy Lee did. That was a close enough where it could have been scored a 12 round draw. Saunders was fighting in his home country and he got the nod over the visiting Lee, who comes from Ireland.



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