By Dan Ambrose: Promoter Tom Loeffler and IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) are scouting the location for their next fight in Dallas, Texas. It’s unclear if this is a backup plan for GGG or if this is directed towards a rematch with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on May 5.
Since it’s not Canelo’s promoters at Golden Goy Promotions that are doing the active scouting in Dallas, it could turn out to be a waste of time for Loeffler. Golden Boy reportedly wants the rematch to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada like their previous fight on September 16.
That was a fight that was scored a controversial 12 round draw at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Golovkin appeared to win the fight by 4-6 rounds, but the judges assigned by the Nevada State Athlete Commission scored it 118-110 for Canelo, 115-113 for Golovkin and 114-114.
Team @GGGBoxing together again, on way to #Dallas for big @tecate announcement and scouting location for next fight pic.twitter.com/mLksQFdGAM
— Tom Loeffler (@TomLoeffler1) October 24, 2017
If Golovkin doesn’t face Canelo in Texas in his next fight, then it would still be a great venue for Triple G to defend against his World Boxing Council mandatory challenger Jermall Charlo (26-0, 20 KOs). He’s from Texas, and lives in Houston. Charlo is a very popular fighter in Texas. Golovkin fighting Charlo in Texas might even be a better fight than facing Canelo over there, as Charlo is a lot bigger, stronger and a more aggressive fighter. Golovkin wouldn’t have to chase Charlo around the ring like he was doing against Canelo. Besides that, there would be less of a chance of the fight going the distance. Either Charlo gets knocked out or Golovkin does. It would be a fight where Golovkin would be forced to think knockout, because he’s not going to beat Charlo standing back on the outside throwing his jab all night long. Charlo will make it a point in going after Golovkin from the 1st round until the end of the fight.
Not having the rematch in a venue that favors Canelo, could mean that he would have to fight a lot better than he did last time against Triple G. Canelo appeared to win the first 2 rounds, but then he gassed out for the last 10 rounds and was only capable of fighting hard in the 1st minute of each round. Canelo would go into shutdown after landing some shots in the first 45 seconds. Canelo not doing anything in the last two minutes of the rounds made it difficult to give him more than 3 rounds in the entire fight. Somehow, the judges that worked the fight were giving Canelo credit for doing very little. Even the judge that scored it 114-114 gave Canelo round 7, and that was easily Golovkin’s best round of the fight. If Golovkin gets the same kind of judging in the rematch with Canelo, then there’s little chance that he’ll be able to win the fight by a decision.
Golovkin and Loeffler wanted the rematch with Canelo to take place in December, but the popular Mexican star opted to take the remainder of 2017 off, as he wants to rest from the hard fight. Canelo will be fighting next on May 5, with or without Golovkin. If it’s without GGG, it could be David Lemieux (38-3, 33 KOs) that opposes him. Lemieux must get past WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders on December 16 in their fight in Canada. Lemieux could be a good option for Canelo if Golden Boy can’t work out a deal with Triple G and Loeffler.
The things that could prove to be difficult to agree on for the Canelo-GGG negotiations is the location of the fight and the purse split. Putting the rematch back in Las Vegas would give Canelo a big advantage, because he means a lot to that city with the money he routinely brings there each time he fights. It’s arguably an uneven playing field if Canelo and Golovkin fight in Vegas again. If Golovkin feels like he can’t get a fair deal fighting Canelo in Vegas with the Nevada State Athetic Commission assigned judges, then it’s going to make GGG feel pressured that he has to take unnecessary risks in the fight to ensure he knocks Canelo out, so he can avoid a similar fate as last time he fought him. It’s unclear whether Golovkin will get a better deal in Texas though, as Canelo will have an even bigger advantage with the crowd.
Canelo’s fight with Austin Trout took place in San Antonio, Texas in 2013, and many boxing fans thought it should have been scored a 12-round draw or a win for Trout. The judges gave the win to Canelo by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 115-113, 118-109 and 116-111. The score 118-109 by judge Stanley Christodoulous was every bit as bad as the 118-110 score handed down by Adelaide Byrd in the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight.
The only difference is there wasn’t as much of a fuss about the score, because Trout lacked the popularity of Golovkin, and there wasn’t nearly as big a spotlight on the fight as there was for the Canelo-Golovkin contest. The idea location for the rematch, if the idea is to be fair to Golovkin, would be to have it take place in New York. There are a lot of boxing fans from Eastern Europe living in the New York arena and it would mean a much more balanced crowd than if the fight takes place in Las Vegas again or in Texas. Unfortunately, I don’t think Canelo and Golden Boy would ever agree to fight Golovkin in New York, because they would be giving away one of their biggest advantage by not having the rematch take place in a city or state that favors them.
If Canelo and Golden Boy choose to fight Lemieux next in May, then Golovkin and Loeffler will have wasted their time traveling to Dallas, Texas to scout out a venue, unless, of course, they plan on defending against Charlo. By this point, Loeffler and Golovkin have got to have some idea of whether the rematch with Canelo will come off for May 5 next year. If Golden Boy Promotions are still dragging their feet in the negotiations at 5 weeks, it’s probably a sign that they don’t want any part of Golovkin just yet. Maybe they’ll change their mind next year or maybe the year after that.