By Chris Williams: WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) and IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) are expected to have an agreement reached in their negotiations by this weekend. The Golovkin-Jacobs fight is expected to take place on March 18 on HBO PPV at Madison Square Garden in New York if the negotiations get done before the purse bid.
That’s a deal that would obviously please Golovkin’s management, because it would be on HBO, and that’s who Golovkin is under contact with.
If the negotiations aren’t completed, then it will go to a purse bid this Monday at the World Boxing Association’s headquarters. Jacobs isn’t going to get a lot of money for the fight if it’s televised on non-PPV, especially if it goes to a purse bid.
Golovkin will get a 75/25 split of the revenue, and that’s not going to leave much for Jacobs. When you look at what Jacobs is getting out of the Golovkin fight, it’s not a whole lot unless the fight is put on pay-per-view, and if it does well. The main thing that Jacobs is getting out of the Golovkin fight is the gamble that if he beats him, then he’ll be the position to get the big money fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez in September.
That would be brutal shock to the boxing world, because many of the fans and the members of the media have been assuming that Canelo and Golovkin would be the ones facing each other in 2017. If Jacobs can pull off a miracle upset of Golovkin in March 2017, then he could be the one that winds up facing Canelo instead. You can’t assume anything though. Golden Boy Promotions, the handlers for Canelo, could be frightened away if Jacobs beats Golovkin in an impressive fashion.
Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez said this to RingTV.com about the Golovkin-Jacobs negotiations being almost completed:
“He insinuated it was 95 percent done, that it was that close,” Sanchez said about Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler having almost reached a deal with Jacobs’ management. “He said there were a couple other issues that he has to iron out, but he told me that it’s very, very close and we would know within the next couple days.”
The only way a fight between Golovkin and Jacobs makes sense for Jacobs is if the fight goes on HBO or Showtime PPV. It has to be on PPV for Jacobs to get the money that he’s worth out of the fight otherwise it would be too risky for the fight to be worth it. It would be a big gamble for Jacobs to take the fight against Golovkin unless he’s got the chance to fight on PPV.
Jacobs could come out of this without even having to fight Golovkin. All he needs to do is have his manager Al Haymon win the purse bid on Monday, and then stick the fight on Showtime Boxing. Golovkin would then possibly need to vacate his WBA title because of his existing contract with HBO. Will Golovkin’s contract with HBO let him fight on Showtime?
I’m willing to bet that it doesn’t. Jacobs wouldn’t have to fight Golovkin, and he might be able to slide in as the WBA ‘Super World’ middleweight champion. In other words, Jacobs could potentially get his title status increased if Golovkin vacates his title.
It would be great for Jacobs. The two fighters could always restart negotiations in a unification match with Jacobs being the sole WBA champion and Golovkin merely the IBF/IBO/WBC champion. I’m willing to bet that Jacobs would get a bigger slice of the pie in a unification fight than he would if he were the junior WBA champion and Golovkin the senior guy with the WBA ‘Super World’ title.
Jacobs can make good money fighting other guys. He doesn’t need the Golovkin fight for him to make a good living in the sport. If Al Haymon and Loeffler fail to reach a deal by the close of this weekend, then it would be smart idea for Jacobs to vacate his WBA title, and then move in the direction of WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders. If Jacobs can get that fight, he would have an excellent chance of winning that title. Saunders had problems in his recent title defense against Artur Akavov. However, Jacobs would need to get in line for a fight against Saunders, and by the time he gets a crack at that title, Canelo Alvarez or Golovkin might beat him to it.
Jacobs has enough star appeal to where he doesn’t need to take the small money for a fight against Golovkin. Unless the fight winds up on PPV, I don’t see it as worth it for Jacobs. He should move on unless he can get the fight on PPV. The money won’t be enough of a bump up from what Jacobs normally males unless it winds up on PPV.