By Dan Ambrose: World Boxing Association president Gilberto Mendoza has reportedly given fighters Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs an extension to negotiate their fight between them before he decides to call for a purse bid. The extension is until Wednesday.
Jacobs and Golovkin’s management are still working out the purse split of the revenue.
Golovkin, as the WBA ‘Super Champion’, is entitled to a 75/25 split. However, Jacobs’ management wants at least a 60/40 split despite the fact that Golovkin holds the IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight titles and Jacobs just the WBA belt. In other words, they close to parity. Whether Jacobs is popular enough in the boxing world compared to Golovkin to rate a 60/40 split is debatable.
You would have to go by the ratings that Golovkin brings in for his fights, and the interest that he creates in the sport. Is Jacobs almost as popular as Golovkin? I’d say no. I think you could argue that Golovkin is much more popular than Jacobs. To what to degree is unknown. I don’t think Jacobs rates a 60/40 split. That’s too close.
Leon Margules, the attorney for Jacobs, has reportedly petitioned the WBA to have the purse split for the Golovkin-Jacobs fight changed from the WBA’s 75/25 to 60-40, according to the LA Times. The WBA has voted on the petition as a committee. The WBA president Gilberto Mendoza didn’t reveal what the results of the vote were. It wouldn’t be surprising if the WBA votes in favor of the 60/40 split. In that case, Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler would have to agree to the split unless they want to vacate the WBA title. They can always do that.
Jacobs would then have the WBA title all to himself. Golovkin would have to make a decision whether he felt that Jacobs is worth 40%. A revenue split of that type would suggest that Jacobs is almost as popular as him. I don’t know if you can say that. The WBA obviously just wants to make the Golovkin-Jacobs fight happen. So you would have to believe that they would be inclined to give Jacobs the 60-40 split that he’s asking for if they feel that he’ll walk away if he doesn’t get it.
“If they can reach an agreement by Oct. 12, we just ask for contracts,” Mendoza said to the latimes.com. “If they can’t, I’ll call for a purse bid within 10 days [Oct. 22] and we’ll then release what we decided. They don’t know right now.”
Loeffler might choose to voluntarily give Jacobs a better cut of the revenue; although I doubt that he would be willing to give him a 60/40 split. If it goes to a purse bid and Showtime wins the bid or someone on Jacobs’ side, then the fight could wind up on Showtime and it might end up being staged at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. That’s where Jacobs wants the fight to take place. Golovkin and Loeffler want the fight to take place at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Golovkin is under contract with HBO. It’s unclear what happens if Showtime wins the purse bid. Does Golovkin have to fight on Showtime instead of HBO? Is that even doable for him? It would be a pity if Golovkin had to give up his WBA title because of Showtime televising the fight. Who would Jacobs fight if Golovkin vacates? Would it be another lower level fighter like Sergio Mora, Caleb Traux or Jarrod Fletcher again for Jacobs? Showtime could be stuck with a real albatross if they win the purse bid and Golovkin vacates.
“We are definitely interested and will aggressively pursue,” Golovkin-Jacobs, Showtime Executive Vice President Stephen Espinoza said to latimes.com.
Golovkin is stuck between a rock and hard place in terms of the negotiations. His goal is to collect all the world titles. This means that if the WBA decides to give Jacobs a very, very generous 60/40 split, Golovkin would need to abide by that if he wants to keep his WBA title. A popular fighter that didn’t care about collecting titles, might just give up the WBA title and move on to fight guys where they can get the lion’s share of the revenue that they rightfully deserve due to their popularity. We saw Saul Canelo Alvarez do just that with Golovkin this year. Golovkin, as the mandatory challenger, rated a 55/45 split.
If Canelo had taken the fight, Golovkin would have gotten a very generous split. Instead, Canelo gave up the WBC title, and his promoters at Golden Boy recently gave Golovkin a lump sum offer of $10 million for a fight that could possibly make $100 million or more. In other words, Golovkin is being offered a much smaller splice of the revenue than he would have gotten before had Canelo not vacated his WBC title. If Golovkin wants to keep his WBA title, he’ll probably need to agree to whatever split the WBA votes on.
It would be great for Golovkin if they vote to keep it at 75/25.If they do that, then Jacobs might bolt, and then there would be no fight. I doubt that the WBA is going to vote for the 75/25. I think they’re going to give Jacobs his wish to have the fight purse increased to 60/40 in favor of Golovkin. Would Floyd Mayweather Jr. agree to a 60/40 purse split over a fighter far less popular than himself if the WBA voted for him to give his opponent that split? I think not. I think Mayweather would vacate his WBA title quickly without thinking twice. But Mayweather wouldn’t be wasting time trying to collect all the titles, because he never needed to have his career validated in that manner.
“Honestly, it’s a good fight for the sport and I’m trying to be fair with Jacobs and Golovkin,” Mendoza said.
It sounds like Mendoza and his WBA organization are going to increase the 75-25 revenue split for the fight. Just how much is anyone’s guess? If Golovkin wants the fight badly enough, he’ll agree to the 60-40 split. In the future though, it might not be in Golovkin’s best interest to keep all the world titles if his challengers are going to push to the limit to get a bigger cut like this. Golovkin would be better off giving up all the titles and focus instead on facing the best fighters.