By Dan Ambrose: Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez says that a “significant offer” has been made to unbeaten middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for a fight between them in September 2017. The offer is two to three times more than anything Golovkin has ever received before in his career, says Canelo. The Mexican star says that if Golovkin wants the fight, then he should accept the offer.
If Golovkin doesn’t agree, then that’s it. He should move on. Golovkin would be shortchanging himself if he agrees to an offer that doesn’t equate to the boxing fans that he helps bring in for the fight in terms of pay per view buys and ticket sales.
If Canelo’s fights against non-stars are averaging around 300,000 pay per view buys, then you would have to conclude that Golovkin would be deserving of a lot more money if he helps Canelo bring the pay per view buys to 2-4 million buys. Canelo isn’t going to get those numbers fighting Willie Monroe Jr, Liam Smith or Billy Joe Saunders.
An offer of just two to three times of what Golovkin has been making per fight isn’t much of an offer, to be honest. Golovkin hasn’t been getting huge paydays during his career, because he hasn’t had the benefit of fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Miguel Cotto the way Canelo has. Getting the opportunity to fight those two big names has obviously helped Canelo. Being with Golden Boy Promotions has also been a big help to Canelo’s career.
“I always said if I ever leave the 154 pound division, I’m going to leave as the best champion, and I think I did that,” said Canelo. “This might be my last fight at 154. Right now, I’m not sure yet. I don’t care about heckling [from Golovkin]. That can’t get to me. We made him a significant offer. It’s two or three times the most he’s ever made in his career. If he really wants the fight, then take the offer. If not, then move on. Yes, I do feel it’s my era. It’s my time now.”
Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya said this to Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler about the Canelo-Golovkin fight:
“Call me back so we can talk about it, but don’t just leave me hanging out there. All they can do is talk in the media and bash. Let’s talk about it. It was a substantial amount.”
If Canelo is going to try and hog most of the money for the Golovkin fight, then it doesn’t make sense for him to agree to fight him. Golovkin would be hurting himself if he agreed to take the small money, and then the fight brings in 4 million pay per view buys. A fight like that would make Canelo a fortune, and leave Golovkin with just a small amount.
Given what Golovkin brings to the fight in terms of fan interest, you’ve got to figure that he rates at least a 55-45 deal along the same lines as the cut that Manny Pacquiao received for his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year. Without the interest that Pacquiao helped bring to the Mayweather fight last year, we probably would have seen Mayweather bringing in a little over 300,000 buys fighting someone like Andre Berto.
Pacquiao helped Mayweather make a ton of money, and he was given a good split of the money. But if Golovkin isn’t going to be getting close to parity for a fight against Canelo, then it’s not even worth it for him to take the fight, because he’s not getting back what he should be getting by him being the catalyst to attract interest. Canelo an fight whoever he wants, but he’s probably not going to be able to go beyond 600,000 buys. He needs Golovkin to bring in tons of buys, because he’s not going to get those numbers fighting Miguel Cotto or Amir Khan again. Canelo needs Golovkin, and in order to get him, he needs to give him at least close to a 50-50 deal.
Golovkin should move on and look to get fights against Chris Eubank Jr. and Billy Joe Saunders rather than investing anymore time in trying to get a fight against Canelo. If the Mexican star and his promoters at Golden Boy decide at some point in the future that Golovkin is worth giving a 55-45 or 50-50 deal, then I think they’ll get the fight. But I don’t see them getting a fight against him with a 90-10 offer or some other offer that is slanted in Canelo’s favor.