By Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler is thinking of matching Golovkin against WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (34-0, 24 KOs) later this year if talks with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions fails to produce a fight, according to the LA Times. Ramirez has been very open about his interest in getting in the ring with Golovkin. Ramirez took a shot at Canelo by saying he’d fight Golovkin like a real Mexican.
“If Gennady Golovkin wants to fight a real Mexican, here I am raising his hand to face, for the honor of Mexico,” Ramirez said to espndesportes.
One thing that would help the chances of Golovkin vs. Ramirez fight taking place is Ramirez’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank. He absolutely wants the Golovkin-Ramirez fight, and he’s not talking the need for a catch-weight or any other nonsense for the fight to happen. Arum doesn’t want the fight to marinate. He wants it now.
Golovkin, 34, could need to take care of WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs before the Ramirez fight if Jacobs doesn’t vacate first. Jacobs is managed by Al Haymon, and it’s unclear whether he would be given the green light for a dangerous fight against Triple G.
The Canelo-Golovkin negotiations are set to resume by June 1.
If an agreement can be made, the two fighters will be facing each other on September 17 on the Mexican Independence Day Holiday at the the large 90,000 seat AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Canelo gave up his WBC middleweight title last week to free himself from the timeline that the World Boxing Council had set on the negotiations to conclude. They wanted the negotiations completed by May 24.
Canelo would have received a 55-45 split with Golovkin, according to the LA Times. However, with Canelo no longer the WBC champion, it’s unclear whether that figure will be more heavily tilted in his favor. We’re not even sure whether Golden Boy and Canelo really wants the fight with Golovkin. There are many who believe that Canelo vacated the WBC title so that he can avoid the fight against Golovkin. We’re going to find out how badly Canelo and Golden Boy wants the Golovkin fight in the next month.
Now that Canelo has given up the WBC middleweight title, he and Golden Boy Promotions will likely press hard for a catch-weight limit of 155lbs for the Golovkin fight. Golovkin still might not like the idea of Canelo using weight as a tool to try and weaken him. Golovkin is an old school fighter who believes in fighting in the normal weight classes. He spoke in the past of fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. by going down to 154 to fight him at junior middleweight. Nevertheless, Golovkin did not saying anything about wanting to fight Mayweather at a catch-weight. He was going to fight him at the junior middleweight limit.
Some fans have chosen to jump on this to say that if Golovkin was willing to fight Mayweather at 154, then he should have no problems fighting at 155 for the Canelo fight. The difference is that Mayweather wouldn’t rehydrate to 175 to 180. Canelo is young at 25, and still capable of taking off huge amounts of water weight to make the 155lb limit and then put it back on 24 hours before his fights.
As he gets older, it’s doubtful that Canelo’s aging body will let him do this because it’s not easy for older fighters to drain down huge amounts of weight.
If Golovkin wants the fight with Canelo above all else, then he’ll agree to the catch-weight of 155lbs and any purse split that Canelo puts in front of him. If Golovkin wants to make sure he wins the fight with Canelo and doesn’t cripple his own career in the process, then he’ll turn down whatever catch-weight handicap that Canelo asks for, if any.
Canelo did say on the night of his win over Amir Khan on May 7 that he would fight Golovkin at 160. However, Canelo then turned around and said that that it’s not up to him, it’s up to his management in making the final say so. It sounded like a cop out for Canelo by putting it on his promoters lap to take responsibility for whether there will be a catch-weight for the fight or not.
Golovkin isn’t in such a great position if he loses due to him agreeing to a catch-weight. Golovkin likely will not be able to absorb a loss the way that Canelo can because he doesn’t have a huge fan base of Kazhstan fight fans in the U.S that will continue to support him and purchase his fights on PPV. Canelo took a loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 and near losses to Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara without it hurting his career. I think it would badly hurt Golovkin’s career if he lost to Canelo right now because he’s still on his way up and needs to win every possible fight so that he can become a PPV star like Canelo.