By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions has reportedly won their lawsuit for their fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez with past promoter All-Star Boxing. The jury found that there wasn’t a contract that existed between All-Star Boxing and Canelo, states the Golden Boy.
However, the jury did award All-Star Boxing $8.5 million. Golden Boy plans on appealing this to get the award reduced or erased entirely. The $8.5 million is owed by Canelo, not Golden Boy, according to the LA Times. You have to wonder if Golden Boy will give Canelo a bonus to cover the $8.5M.
The positive news from this is that Golden Boy and Canelo are now able to restart negotiations with IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) to put together a mega-fight between the two middleweight stars.
“Told by GB spokesman that Canelo fighting future not impacted by this decision. Free to fight whoever, whenever,” said Lance Pugmire of the LA Times on his Twitter. “Canelo will appeal $8.5 million verdict, according to GB spokesman, who says they’re “mystified” by decision Tuto Zabala enriched Canelo. Just confirmed total, Canelo owes it, not GB.”
Hopefully, the jury award of $8.5 million doesn’t keep Golden Boy from matching Canelo against Triple G. With the money that can be made from the fight, Golden Boy can easily recoup the $8.5 million even if the appeal doesn’t reverse the award.
Having the Canelo-Golovkin fight put together now would make a ton of money for Golden Boy, as well as Canelo and Golovkin.
Golovkin can’t wait around forever for the negotiations with Canelo to take place. He needs to keep busy, and he can’t sit and wait on this fight to take place. If there’s mutual interest in this fight on Canelo and Golden Boy’s part, then this is the time for them to restart the negotiations so the fight can get made while the 34-year-old Golovkin is still relatively young. The boxing world wants the fight to take place between Canelo and Golovkin now rather than having to wait six years like they did for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight to finally take place.
With all the dangerous contenders and champions at 154 and 160, Canelo might as well fight GGG. If Canelo doesn’t fight Golovkin, he’s going to be expected to fight the Charlo brothers, Demetrius Andrade, Billy Joe Saunders and Daniel Jacobs. WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith’s name was recently mentioned by Golden Boy as a potential opponent for Canelo.
Here’s the statement from Golden Boy:
“We are extremely pleased that not only did the jury find that no contract ever existed between Canelo and All-Star Boxing, but issued a judgment against All-Star boxing and ordered them to pay Golden Boy’s substantial legal fees.
Over the last five-plus years, many questioned why we wouldn’t just settle the case before trial. The answer is simple: We would not be extorted. It was clear from the beginning that neither Canelo nor Golden Boy Promotions had acted inappropriately in any way. We are grateful that the jury was able to see that.
However, it is absurd to think that All-Star Boxing provided anywhere near that amount of value that the jury awarded under a separate claim. We will appeal this part of the decision, and are confident we will win, just as we did on the contract dispute.”
Outside of appealing the financial damages, we now look forward to putting this episode behind us and working with Canelo to continue his meteoric rise though the boxing ranks.”
The last paragraph doesn’t mention Golovkin, and you have to wonder why. If Golden Boy is serious about wanting to work with Canelo to move him through the boxing ranks as they say, then a mention of Golovkin would have been nice unless, of course, they’re not planning on making that fight. The question is with news like this, how can Canelo move though any ranks unless he fights Golovkin? Canelo can’t rise through the welterweight ranks, can he?
Here’s the statement from All-Star Boxing:
“All Star Boxing President, Felix Zabala has confirmed that the $8.5 million verdict in his company’s favor was as a result of one of the counts in his Complaint against Saul Alvarez – Unjust Enrichment.
Although the jury did not find that there was a contract entered into between All Star Boxing and Canelo Alvarez (thus absolving Golden Boy from any interference with the same), they did find ample evidence to return a verdict in favor of All Star Boxing for Canelo’s unjust enrichment from the relationship that did exist between the two.
“The claims that the Court has ruled that Golden Boy’s attorney fees and costs have to be paid by All Star Boxing are 100% false and inaccurate,” Zabala stated. “This is a very momentous moment in my company’s and family’s history, and bottom line we won an $8.5 million dollar verdict against Canelo Alvarez”.