Loeffler says Golden Boy not blocking Golovkin-Saunders fight

By Boxing News - 03/30/2017 - Comments

Image: Loeffler says Golden Boy not blocking Golovkin-Saunders fight

By Allan Fox: Tom Loeffler says Golden Boy Promotions hasn’t told him that his fighter Gennady “GGG” Golovkin cannot take a unification fight against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in June. Loeffler is in negotiations with Golden Boy, and that hasn’t come up in their discussions. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya recently said that Golovkin vs. Saunders would jeopardize the Canelo-Golovkin fight for September because of the potential for injury for Golovkin, and the delay it could cause the promotion for the fight.

Loeffler says he’s been speaking with Golden Boy president Eric Gomez, and he’s not told him that Golovkin can’t fight in June. Loeffler says wants to make the Saunders fight happen if he can. He also wants to make the Canelo fight for Golovkin in September, as long as he beats Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in their fight on May 6.

“If we could do a fight against Billy Joe Saunders, so that we can win that, then that’s great,” said Loeffler to secondsout.com. “That’s been Gennady’s dream to unify the titles; the same with Canelo. If we can make the Canelo fight. We would have loved to do the Canelo fight last year, but if we could do it in September, then we’ll do it,” said Loeffler.

Golovkin wants to capture the last remaining title not in his possession, and Saunders has that belt. There’s speculation that if Golovkin doesn’t fight Saunders in June, Canelo could go after that fight for himself in September and beat him to grab the WBO title.

Loeffler says it’s difficult for him to say he won’t have Golovkin fight Saunders when he doesn’t a signed contract with Golden Boy for a fight against Canelo. He can’t have Golovkin bypass the Saunders fight when he’s not under contract for a fight with Canelo.

“Yeah, Oscar said it in media, but it hasn’t really reflected in my discussions with Golden Boy with Eric Gomez,” said Loeffler about Oscar De La Hoya’s comments in the media about the Canelo-Golovkin fight being in jeopardy if Golovkin fights Billy Joe Saunders in June. “If Gennady can accomplish his dream and fight in June and unify the titles, then he’ll go ahead and do that. If we can make a fight [with Saunders, we don’t even have a fight signed with Canelo yet. It’s hard to say we’ll forgo a fight when we don’t have a fight signed,” said Loeffler.

It sounds like De La Hoya was just talking, and not really serious about the Canelo-Golovkin fight being in jeopardy if Triple G takes the match against Saunders in June.

Loeffler will need to make a decision on the Saunders fight because his promoter has a deadline of 10 days for GGG to decide whether he’ll take that fight. That was 2 days ago that the deadline was set. There’s a little over a week to go for Loeffler to make a decision. Golovkin winning the WBO title will allow him to move up to go after fights against Andre War and Gilberto Ramirez. There’s even a possibility of a fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for Golovkin if he beats Canelo on May 6.

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