By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum thinks Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy should STOP hiding his fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez from middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Arum says De La Hoya should go ahead and make the fight on a percentage deal and not on an offer of eight figures like the one that De La Hoya offered Triple G’s management.
Arum thinks it’s nonsense for De Hoya to be offering Golovkin an eight-figure payday, because he says that’s not how big fights can made. You don’t offer popular fighters a lump sum and think you’re going to get the fight put together.
You need to give them a percentage of the revenue. Arum further states that De La Hoya is hurting Canelo’s popularity by hiding him from Golovkin, as he feels that as long as the fight doesn’t get made, boxing fans will think he’s ducking him. Canelo can’t get as popular if he’s perceived to be ducking Golovkin.
In Arum’s view, it doesn’t matter if Canelo loses the fight to Golovkin. He’ll still gain, as long as he goes out on his shield in a brave manner and he’ll come out ahead in the long run. The way De La Hoya is doing it now, Canelo is being hurt by the fight not being made. Arum says he would have made the Canelo-Golovkin fight by now rather than letting it drag out, because he knows that it would hurt him by not making the fight.
Arum said this to Fighthype.com:
“Oscar should know better about hiding Canelo from Triple G,” said Arum. “When Oscar was a fighter, he fought everybody. He never ducked anybody. That’s what made him the attraction he was. Oscar should make the Canelo-Triple G fight without screwing around anymore. The worst thing that can happen is Canelo losing the fight. So what? If he [Canelo] loses the fight, so what? He’ll go out on his shield. He’s a brave kid. He’ll enhance his value and his reputation, not diminish it. I would have to pick Triple G in the fight, but that’s not to say that Canelo doesn’t have a chance. Certainly if I was handling Canelo, they would have fought in September. Canelo’s a young guy and they’re wasting time not making that fight. Canelo’s numbers will always suffer if he’s perceived by the public to be ducking Triple G. Oscar should sit down with Tom Loeffler, workout the percentages, stop doing the nonsense that you’re going to offer him eight figures. That’s nonsense. Just make a percentage deal. That’s how big fights are always made. You argue about which guy gets what percentage and you make the fight.”
It is kind sad how De La Hoya is so cavalier about having Canelo duck the fight with Golovkin. We all know that De La Hoya took on the best fighters in boxing during his own career. He faced all threats, and his career didn’t suffer despite his problems against the likes of Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins, Felix Trinidad, Manny Pacquiao and Pernell Whitaker. But with the way that De La Hoya is promoting Canelo with him not being put in with Golovkin and some of the other top fighters are 160 and 154, it almost seems like he doesn’t have confidence in him.
If De La Hoya believes in Canelo, then he should have already matched him against Golovkin and some of the other fighters. Canelo has a large enough fan base where he’ll still remain a very popular fighter even if he gets beaten by Golovkin. He should be able to come back from a loss and remain popular, as long as De La Hoya doesn’t steer him around other top fighters like Daniel Jacobs, Julian Williams, Demetrius Andrade and the Charlo brothers. Canelo needs to fight those guys too. He can’t just fight the super popular guys like Golovkin and Floyd Mayweather Jr. and then duck the other dangerous guys.
Obviously, the boxing public isn’t impressed with the match-making that’s being done for Canelo. There’s been a lot of soft match-making for Canelo recently with him put in with paper champion Liam Smith, Amir Khan, Miguel Cotto, James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo. Canelo should have been fighting the Charlos, Golovkin, Jacobs, Julian Williams, Demetrius Andrade and he should have fought a rematch against Erislandy Lara.
Arum is right about De La Hoya needing to make the fight with Golovkin. De La Hoya has dragged it out for two years now, and it’s not helped Canelo’s reputation. You can argue that Canelo is losing to Golovkin daily by not fighting him. The fans see Canelo not taking the fight, and they don’t respect that. The only ones that don’t mind Canelo facing Golovkin are the fans that either aren’t aware of him ducking him or fans that are sympathetic of him ducking him.
If Canelo at least fights in a brave manner in losing to Golovkin, then he should come out ahead in the fight. That means no quitting in the corner and no towel being thrown in the ring by Canelo’s trainer Eddie Reynoso when the going gets tough. We saw how Kell Brook’s trainer threw in the towel in the 5th round to save him when he started taking punishment from Golovkin.
The first time the fight started to go in Golovkin’s direction, Brook’s trainer tossed in the towel. That was weak looking. Canelo needs to be seen going out on his shield. As long as he does that, then it won’t be a big deal if he loses to Golovkin. It would be helpful if Canelo stays off the ropes, because he looked like an old man the way he kept retreating to the ropes in his recent fight against WBA junior middleweight champion Liam Smith on September 17.
Canelo needs to stay in the middle of the ring, avoid taking a knee when the going gets tough, and don’t let his trainer throw in the towel when/if the fight gets out of hand. Canelo needs to go out in a brave manner if he gets knocked out by Golovkin. That’s the way the boxing fans would want it. I think it would be bad news for Canelo if he chooses to quit in his corner or take a knee, because it would be perceived as a weak move by the boxing fans.