By Patrick McHugh: Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez compares the lowball $10 million offer from Golden Boy Promotions to Golovkin for a fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez to a $40 million offer Floyd Mayweather Jr. made to Manny Pacquiao in the past for a mega-fight between them. Pacquiao wisely turned down the $40 million from Mayweather.
Later on the two stars fought each other in May 2015, and Pacquiao walked away with $200 million for the fight, says Sanchez. Had Pacquiao agreed to the $40 million that Mayweather initially offered him for the fight, then he would have lost out on a huge amount of money.
Golden Boy seems to have made the same type of flat feet offer to Golovkin, but to a much lesser extent. If Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler agree to the $10 million, then they could be missing out on a huge amount of money if the fight winds up bringing in a lot of pay-per-view buys on HBO. It’s unclear how many buys the Canelo-Golovkin fight will ultimately bring in. There’s a ton of interest in the fight from the boxing community, as it’s the biggest match-up in the sport right now. There’s nothing that can compare it to it with the current fighters.
If Mayweather makes a comeback at some point, he would likely need to take a dangerous opponent like Golovkin to bring in bigger numbers than the Canelo-Golovkin fight will be bringing in. Mayweather won’t bring in the huge numbers a second time if he fights rematches with Pacquiao, Canelo or Miguel Cotto. The boxing fans already saw those fights, and it’s not likely going to work the second time around if Mayweather fights all or some of those fighters again.
Sanchez said this to Fighthype.com:
“I think that’s something for Tom Loeffler to negotiate with Oscar, but as a fight fan, I started this conversation with Floyd Mayweather when he offered Manny Pacquiao $40 million dollars. Manny wound up making $200 million dollars. So I think this is something they have to negotiate. They have to go through the process of what’s best for each team and what will work and whether what they come up with will be beneficial for us. I’m sure it’s something the whole team agrees with and the management team agrees and Golovkin agrees. If Golovkin says that’s good enough, then that’s good enough for me. I read an article where Jhonny Gonzalez said Canelo will never be the best until he beats Golovkin. I think that’s the sentiments of a lot of fans. To me, it really doesn’t matter. I just want Golovkin to fight three times per year, and if the fans view him as the best, fantastic.”
I don’t think Golovkin and Loeffler are going to agree to the $10 million flat fee that Golden Boy is offering them for the Canelo fight. They want a percentage deal of the loot. If they can get that, then there will be a lot of money to be made for them in fighting the Mexican star. However, if Golden Boy chooses to dig in their heels in negotiating the fight by insisting that Triple G agree to the flat fee, then we may not see the fight made until Golovkin is over the hill and no longer unbeaten.
I think Golovkin will eventually agree to a flat fee, but not until his career has gone belly-up with him being old and no longer the fighter he is today. Golovkin is 34 now, and he probably will start to fade in the next three years. Golden Boy won’t be able to take advantage of the interest in the fight if they wait until Golovkin and Loeffler do agree with a flat fee three to five years from now. Canelo is flawed as a fighter.
I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if he gets beaten again really soon. It was a smart move by Canelo to move back up to middleweight after beating WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith on September 17. If Canelo had chosen to stay at 154, he’d have to fight Demetrius Andrade, and that’s not a fight that I can him winning. Andrade has the size, power and boxing skills to make Canelo look really bad. The guys that Canelo does well against a fighters like Liam Smith, who just stand there all night letting Canelo plod forward to land his big shots. Canelo doesn’t do well against fighters that move around the ring and have fast hands.