Canelo vs. Golovkin needs at least 3 months to promote says Schaefer

By Boxing News - 03/29/2017 - Comments

Image: Canelo vs. Golovkin needs at least 3 months to promote says Schaefer

By Dan Ambrose: Former Golden Boy Promotions boss Richard Schaefer agrees with Oscar De La Hoya that the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight needs at least 3 months preferably 5 months to promote properly so that it can maximize revenue. Like De La Hoya, Schaefer isn’t in favor of Golovkin taking a unification fight against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in June.

Schaefer says if Golovkin takes that fight, it’ll leave only 2 months to promote the Canelo-Golovkin fight before September. Schaefer doesn’t see that as enough time to get the most money out of the fight. Of course, the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight only had 2 months to be promoted back in 2015, and it brought in 4.3 million PPV buys. If a fight is big enough, the boxing public will find out about it quickly and will eagerly purchase it.

“I agree with Oscar on this. You cannot promote a big pay-per-view on a month or 2 lead time,” said former Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schafer to Maxboxing.com about the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight needing at least 3 months’ to be promoted properly. “If Triple G is going to fight in June in Kazakhstan, by the time he’s healed up, you’re going to have 2 months to promote for September. This is not how you maximize revenue. If they can sit down this weekend and agree to terms for pay-per-view promotions for September, if they can have a deal in place that’s contingent on Canelo beating Chavez, then they can start that night right there in Vegas, they can start the pay-per-view promotion,” said Schaefer.

If you to blame someone for the Canelo-Golovkin fight not having enough time, you can point fingers at Canelo and De La Hoya for taking a fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6. There’s only 1 month that separates the date for Golovkin’s proposed fight against Saunders in June and Canelo’s fight against Chavez Jr. in May. There’s only 4 months between Canelo’s fight with Chavez Jr. and the Golovkin fight. That means by the time Canelo is healed from the possible injuries he sustains in the Chavez Jr. fight, it could easily be just 2 months to go before the Golovkin fight.

If Canelo suffers a cut in the Chavez Jr. fight, which might not be healed for 5-6 months depending on how severe it is. Canelo will have a higher chance of being cut against Chavez Jr. than Golovkin will against Saunders in my opinion, because the British fighter is more of a slapper than a puncher. Chavez Jr. has a lot more power than Saunders. Canelo’s fight is the riskier one as far as recovery time goes for injuries.
“Imagine if they can have 4 to 5 months, that’s how you promote pay-per-view,” said Schaefer. “If Golovkin wants to go and fight in Kazakhstan, then don’t go and blame Canelo and Oscar if this fight doesn’t happen,” said Schaefer.

Golovkin can’t afford to assume that the Canelo fight will take place in September, because he was already let down by him in 2016. If Golovkin could trust the sincerity of Canelo and Golden Boy, then it would make more sense for him to forget about fighting Saunders in June. But if he can’t trust Canelo due to him having failed to fight him in 2016, then it doesn’t make sense for Golovkin to walk away from the negotiations for a fight against Saunders.

Frankly, I don’t think the Canelo-Golovkin fight needs more than 2 months to promote anyway because it’s such a big fight. The boxing world will find out in a matter of days about the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight happening. The fans don’t need 5 solid months of promotion to know about the fight and want to purchase it on PPV or see it live.

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