By Dan Ambrose: Former 4 time world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner says IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin will lose to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez when the two of them get around to facing each other. Broner is picking Canelo to knock Golovkin out with a head shot.
Broner brings up Golovkin’s fight against welterweight Kell Brook as an example of him being hurt by a fighter. Broner thinks that if Brook was a bigger fighter, he’d have knocked him out in that fight. That’s the same thing that a lot of boxing fans have been saying about the Golovkin-Brook fight. They think Golovkin was hurt. It’s a judgment think because usually when someone is hurt, they stagger and fall. Golovkin covered up briefly after being hit with an uppercut by Brook in the 2nd round.
Golovkin then continued to press forward for the remainder of the round and finished on the attack. I think people see what they want to see when they watch the Golovkin-Brook and the Golovkin vs. Daniel Jacobs fights. All we know is Brook was stopped in the 5th round when the going got tough for him. His corner threw in the towel to save him after he was clearly hurt by GGG.
As far as the Canelo-Golovkin negotiations, Broner says GGG is the definite B-side in the negotiations. He needs to know his place and take the smaller money this time. If Golovkin wins the fight, then he can come back and say he’s the A-side in the rematch with Canelo if there ever is one. Broner doesn’t think Golovkin deserves a split of the revenue. He thinks a flat fee is what he rates for the Canelo fight. Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy previously had offered Golovkin a flat fee of $15 million for the fight.
That offer is said to be off the table by Canelo’s promoters Oscar De La Hoya following Golovkin’s fight against Daniel Jacobs on March 18. That fight pulled in 170,000 buys on HBO PPV. Apparently, those numbers were too low for De La Hoya to want to keep the previous offer of $15 million on the table for him.
“He never made that type of money ever in his career,” said Broner to Figthub.com about Golovkin in him being offered a $15 million flat fee in the past to fight Canelo. “He’s never fought that type of opponent at this level before. Let’s say he wins this fight. “In the rematch, then you can come back and demand to be the A-side, but right now, honestly, he’s the B-side in my eyes. You have everything to gain. In my eyes, Canelo has more to lose. That’s what I think.”
I don’t think it’s going to work out like Broner says it will when it comes to negotiations for a second fight between Canelo and Golovkin if there ever is one. It doesn’t matter if Golovkin beats Canelo. I don’t think Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy are going to allow Golovkin to be the A-side in the negotiations for him to take the bigger cut of the revenue. Golovkin will no doubt get a bigger cut of the financial pie than he would if the two fight each other in September, but I don’t see them letting Golovkin get the higher percentage.
If Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler push too hard for the money, I think Canelo and Golden Boy would walk away and go back to fighting whoever they can for smaller paydays but in sure things like the ones we’ve been seeing lately against James Kirkland, Amir Khan, Liam Smith and Alfredo Angulo.
“That’s going to be another hell of a fight,” said Broner about the Canelo-Golovkin fight. ”I think Canelo is going to beat him. I think he’ll clip him. He gets hit too much,” said Broner.
Canelo did not look his best in his last 2 fights against Liam Smith and Amir Khan. The Canelo that won those two fights would have a great deal of problems against Golovkin, because he looked mediocre in both of those matches.
Canelo to stay at 160
Canelo Alvarez says he’s going to be fighting at 160 from this point onward in his career. He just has to get past his next opponent former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) on May 6 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Look, I’m not a current world champion at middleweight. I have been in the past, but I’m not now,” Alvarez said. “And as far as the weight, after this fight, I’m not looking past this fight. I’m focused 100 percent on this fight, but I’m now staying at middleweight. I’ll stay at 160 pounds.”
Canelo’s official move up to 160 is 2 years overdue. He should have already moved up in weight in 2015 when it was already clear that he’s rehydrating into the 170s for his fights. Instead of moving up to middleweight at the full weight, Canelo perched himself at a catch weight at 155 pounds, which technically already made him a middleweight, because the weight falls into the division’s weight parameter of 155-160.
Canelo could have called himself a small middleweight for the last 2 years, and some boxing fans might have believed that, but the was clearly fighting in the 160lb division with the exception of his fight with Liam Smith last September. That fight took place at 154 for Smith’s WBO junior middleweight title.
“I actually didn’t even know he wasn’t going to fight in June. That’s obviously a good indication but our focus is on Canelo and Chavez,” said Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya when asked by the boxing media on Tuesday if he was aware that Golovkin had decided not to fight WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in a unification contest on June 10 in Kazakhstan.
It would be funny if De La Hoya chooses to move Canelo towards a fight with Saunders or someone else in September instead of Golovkin. If that happens, Golovkin and promoter Tom Loeffler are going to look bad in the eyes of a lot of fans for choosing not to fight Saunders in June.
Golovkin would then need to fight his IBF mandatory challenger Tureano Johnson in what could be a very tough fight for him. Johnson wouldn’t be an easy out for GGG by any means.
Canelo fights Julio Chavez Jr. on May 6. The two of them will be fighting at a catchweight of 164.5 pounds. De La Hoya and Canelo say they want the Golovkin fight after the Chavez Jr. fight, but there’s a lot of skepticism from people in the boxing world whether that match will come off. It won’t be for lack of trying on Golovkin and his promoter Loeffler’s part in working to get the Canelo fight done. Canelo still has nice money options against David Lemieux and Miguel Cotto.
With those fights still out there for Canelo and Golden Boy, they don’t have the need to make a dangerous fight against Golovkin. Further, they don’t have to give Golovkin a fair deal in the negotiations because it’s not important for them to make that fight happen right now at this time.
Once Canelo goes through all of his fight options for easy paydays, then a fight against Golovkin could get made. I don’t think that’s for some time though. For that reason, Golovkin and Loeffler are going to look like a couple of saps in the eyes of boxing fans for bypassing the Saunders fight for June. They should have been able to predict Canelo and Golden Boy’s behavior based on their past behavior when it comes to the match-making. Fighting Lemieux is a better option for Canelo right now.
Wladimir Klitschko compares his career to Mount Everest
The aging former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) views his boxing career to that of the giant 29,029 foot Mount Everest in Nepal. The mountain turns back many experienced climbers that attempt to climb to the top. Some that make it to the top don’t make it down with their lives. Klitschko, 41, is facing IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Wladimir thinks Joshua, 27, will not be able to withstand the elements of dealing with him.
“Please excuse me and this may sound arrogant, but for example, a parallel: Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world,” Klitschko said via ESPN.com. “It’s there. It’s been there for a long time and will be there for a long time. Mount Everest is still there. Is Mount Everest defeated? It’s still there,” said Klitschko.
It’s kind of a weird comparison for Wladimir to compare himself to Mount Everest. Klitschko was just beaten by Tyson Fury in 2015 in a lackluster performance by him. Fury didn’t look good in that fight either. Fury wasn’t quite as bad as Wladimir. The only thing you can really say about Wladimir is he was a world champion during a 10-year weak period for the heavyweight division. Lennox Lewis retired, and there wasn’t anyone to give Wladimir too many problems from 2006 to 2015. Against Joshua, it’s the wrong guy for Wladimir to be facing right now.