Golovkin: Who do my fans want to see me fight next?

By Boxing News - 05/20/2016 - Comments

golovkin633By Dan Ambrose: Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) added another belt to his fast accumulating collection of middleweight titles with the addition of the WBC 160lb strap, courtesy of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Golovkin picked up the WBC title the easy way when Canelo chose to give the title up after the World Boxing Council gave him and his promoters Golden Boy Promotions a deadline of May 24 to be done with the negotiations with Golovkin or else they would send it to a purse bid.

Canelo chose to vacate at this point, a move that many boxing fans see as a cowardly fight ducking move on his part. Supposedly, Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions are still interested in negotiating a fight with Golovkin.

Few people believe that. Golovkin seems to be skeptical himself, as he’s now asking the fans who they want to see him fight. That’ a pretty indication that Golovkin doesn’t believe that Canelo and Golden Boy will agree to make the fight with him.

Here are the top five opponents I believe that Golovkin will pick from for his next fight:

1. Billy Joe Saunders
2. Andy Lee
3. Jorge Sebastian Heiland
4. Arif Magomedov
5. Chris Eubank Sr.

The boxing fans obviously want to see Golovkin fight Canelo next, but I don’t see that fight happening unless Golovkin agrees to a catch-weight of 155lbs, and whatever purse split that Canelo and Golden Boy ask for. I think we’re probably talking about Golovkin being offered a 90-10 split in favor of Canelo on top of a catch-weight of 155lbs. Not only would the fight be not worth it for Golovkin because of the catch-weight involved, but it likely won’t be worth it due to the lopsided money split in favor of Canelo.

A fight between the two would make Canelo fabulously rich in the same way that the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao made Mayweather incredibly rich with his bigger cut of the revenue. At least Pacquiao was popular enough to negotiate a 60-40 defeat with him getting the smaller money. Golovkin wouln’t be able to do this because he’s not at the level where Pacquiao is in terms of popularity. Golovkin isn’t a PPV fighter like Pacquiao was, and this means he would lied to take the smaller money.

If Golovkin is okay with taking only 10 percent of the money for the fight, then there’s a chance that he and Canelo can negotiate the fight. But I think it’ll also require that Golovkin agree to the 155lb strength-draining catch-weight for him to get the fight as well.

The question is will Golven agree to take the smaller money and a catch-weight? It might not even be worth it for Golovkin to take the fight under those circumstances because Canelo no longer has the WBC middleweight title that Golovkin wanted. That belt is now in Golovkin’s possession and the only reason why he would need Canelo is to give the fans an interesting fight to watch, and of course to get a nice payday if the fight can get made.