Golovkin hopes to fight 4 times in 2017

By Boxing News - 12/13/2016 - Comments

Image: Golovkin hopes to fight 4 times in 2017

By Eric Baldwin: If IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) can get his World Boxing Association ordered fight against WBA ‘regular’ champion Daniel Jacobs out of the way in March, Triple G plans on fighting 4 times total for 2017.

The only thing that might prevent him from doing that is if his promoter loses the December 19 WBA ordered purse bid for his fight against Jacobs. The management for Jacobs could push the fight to beyond March, and that could further tie Golovkin down with the fight. He might end up having no time but to get even just two fights in 2017 depending on how long the fight with Jacobs drags on.

WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders might be an option if the Jacobs fight becomes untenable. Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler might have to look in another direction rather than devoting too much time on the Jacobs fight. The purse bid that is scheduled for December for the Golovkin-Jacobs fight could be lost by Golovkin’s promoter. If that happens then anything is possible. Golovkin could be stuck having to fight Jacobs on Showtime Boxing, and that would not be good news for him, because he’s under contract with HBO.

Perhaps HBO might give Golovkin permission to fight on Showtime for this instance, but maybe they won’t. You could understand why HBO wouldn’t want to let Golovkin fight on their rival network for such a big fight like the Jacobs fight, because it would be helping Showtime while doing nothing for HBO. It’s probably not a big enough fight for the Golovkin vs. Jacobs fight to be televised on both HBO and Showtime. They did that Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao for their ‘Fight of the Century’ in early 2015, but that fight was a special case. It was a tremendous fight. There’s nothing that could compare with it as far as interest from the boxing world.

Golovkin vs. Jacobs is a so-so fight with Golovkin’s loyal fans tuning as they normally do, but likely not much more than what they usually get. Jacobs isn’t a big enough. He’s a good fighter, but he’s failed to step up and face the more quality fighters since his loss to Dmitry Pirog in 2010. You can argue that the only real quality fighter that Jacobs has fought in the last six years was Peter Quillin. The rest of the names on Jacobs’ resume have been mediocre fighters without a fan base of any kind. That obviously hasn’t helped make Jacobs a more popular fighter. That’s why the fight between Golovkin and Jacobs is not going to be a tremendous one where both networks can televise the fight on the same night and expect huge ratings. It’s not that kind of a fight unfortunately. That’s the sad part. That’s why it’s likely that only one of the networks will wind up televising the Golovkin vs. Jacobs fight in 2017 if it even happens at all.

Team Golovkin needs to have concrete plan for what to do if they lose the purse bid on December 19. If the next thing they hear is that Jacobs and his manager will stick the fight on Showtime, then it could be bad for them. Hopefully, Golovkin will have already spoken to HBO BEFORE the purse bid this month to alert them to the possibility of his team potentially losing the bid and having the fight put on Showtime. At least then Golovkin could vacate his WBA title and move on rather than have problems with HBO.

Golovkin, 34, is planning on facing former two division world champion Saul Canelo Alvarez in September of next year. It’s still too early to know if that fight takes place or not. Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy are making the right noises about wanting the fight, but at the end of the day, they might balk if Golovkin doesn’t jump through all the hoops that they setup for him. That means Golovkin would need to likely accept the flat fee that they were offered to him, which is said to be $10 million for a fight that could bring in HUGE numbers on HBO PPV.

Getting a fight against Saunders might prove to be difficult for Golovkin’s management if Golden Boy and Canelo have interest in that fight. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya recently said that the offer they made to Saunders will need to be cut due to his poor performance against Artur Akavov. It’s unclear whether De La Hoya was serious about that or not. The fact that an offer has been made from Golden Boy to Saunders for a fight against Canelo tells you that they want the World Boxing Organization belt that he has in his possession.

I doubt that they’re going to lose interest in acquiring that title just because Saunders looked bad in beating Akavov. The title is obvious what Canelo and Golden Boy wants. Saunders is less important. If Canelo can get ahold of the WBO 160lb title, then he can use that potentially to get a bigger cut of the revenue for a fight against Golovkin in September 2017. Canelo would be a champion going into a fight against Golovkin rather than just a challenger.

There’s a big difference. Golden Boy could ask for a larger slice of the financial pie and use Canelo’s WBO title as just one of the reasons for why they deserve getting the bigger money. The other reasons are obvious. Canelo is a PPV fighter while Golovkin is not. Canelo recently brought in 51,000 fans for his fight against little known WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith on September 17. If Golovkin fought Smith in the U.S it’s not likely that there would be even half that number. Golovkin vs. Smith is a fight that wouldn’t attract a lot of interest. For some reason, Canelo’s fans are willing to see him fight anybody when he’s in Texas.

Golovkin increases his popularity with each fight, which is why it’s important that he fight four times per year when possible. Getting tied down with one fighter like Jacobs is not good news for Golovkin’s career. He needs to be able to get these fights over with quickly and move on.