De La Hoya: Golovkin is running from Canelo

By Boxing News - 10/31/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya says champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin might not realize how much money that was offered to him for a fight a against Golden Boy star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. According got De La Hoya, it’s Golovkin that is running from Canelo and not the other way around. De La Hoya is referring to the eight-figure offer that Golden Boy made to Golovkin’s promoters for a fight against Canelo in September 2017. De La Hoya feels that if Golovkin isn’t concerned with money, then he’ll take the fight with Canelo.

In other news, appears that the reported $10 million flat fee offer that has been made to Golovkin from Golden Boy is not going to be increased. If Golovkin wants the fight, then he’ll need to accept that offer. If not, then Golden Boy will take Canelo in another direction towards other fighters.

De La Hoya says they’re not going to chase Golovkin any longer. Canelo is going to fight twice in early 2017, and then in September in what he hopes will be against Golovkin. If De La Hoya is serious about not wanting to pursue the Golovkin fight for Canelo any longer, then that’s going to be interesting to see. The boxing public is going to continue to apply pressure on Golden Boy and Canelo for them to make the Golovkin fight.

It might not be a good idea for Golden Boy to put Golovkin on ignore, because it could stunt Canelo’s career and hurt his pay-per-view totals, which are heading downwards. We saw how Manny Pacquiao’s pay-per-view numbers started dropping off after 2012, when his promoter Bob Arum stopped matching him against guys the boxing fans wanted to see. It was only when Pacquiao fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. that his PPV totals increased. Now that fight is over, Arum is once again matching Pacquiao against guys in non-compelling fights and his PPV totals are dropping again.

De La Hoya said this to ESPN Deportes about the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight:

“Golovkin says he’s not about the money. Let’s make the fight for the people, for the public. The arrangements can be made, so there is no problem, but you have to make the fight. Look, the one who is running here is Golovkin. Maybe he doesn’t know how much is being offered. So the money is there to make the fight.”

It’s in Canelo’s best interest for him to fight Golovkin so that he can become a crossover star in the U.S rather than being a star with a segment of the population. Canelo needs Golovkin’s scalp for him to get to the next level to become a true pay-per-view attraction. De La Hoya says that Canelo has replayed Mayweather as boxing’s top pay-per-view fighter, but he’s not a good replacement in terms of the pay-per-view numbers he’s brought in with him as the A-side.

The only time that Canelo has brought in big pay-per-view numbers is when he had an opponent that was either more popular than him or almost as popular in Miguel Cotto and Mayweather. For Canelo to get to the level of Mayweather, he needs to fight guys like Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs and beat them. Canelo isn’t going to become a huge star defeating guys like Liam Smith, Amir Khan, Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland. Those are record-padding opposition, and not nearly good enough to turn Canelo into a crossover star in the U.S.

You can see from what De La Hoya is saying that the flat fee offer of eight figures that was given to Golovkin appears to be final for September 2017. It’s now up to Golovkin and his promoters to decide whether they want to accept that offer or not. Golden Boy has the 34-year-old Golovkin in a tough situation, because they can wait him out until he gets old and is starting to take losses. Once that happens, the $10 million offer for a fight against Canelo will likely be reduced to a smaller amount.

Golovikin won’t be in the position to decide whatever offer that is given to him, considering that his opportunities will start to dwindle as age sets in. Canelo is only 26 right now. He’s probably got another seven years before he starts to get beaten by the top guys at 160. Even then, Golden Boy can keep Canelo from losing by being careful who they match him against. We’re already seeing that Golden Boy isn’t matching Canelo against the talented 154lb fighters like the Charlo brothers and Demetrius Andrade.

“We are no longer chasing Golovkin and his team,” said De La Hoya. They’re playing games, that’s all. Canelo will continue his career, he will fight in January or February, depending on the hand, and then go fight in May and September, and hopefully September will be the fight with Golovkin.”

If the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight is one that can bring in over $100 million, then it’s not in Golovkin’s best interest to agree to flat fee of $10 million. He’s better off taking a percentage deal so that he can share in the money the fight makes. He can’t share if he’s given a flat fee ahead of time for a fight that could make huge money.

The only way Golovkin comes out ahead by taking a flat fee is if the fight against Canelo tanks badly with it bringing in few pay-per-view buys. However, that’s hard to believe. If Canelo was able to bring in 600,000 buys fighting Amir Khan and 900,000 buys fighting 36-year-old Miguel Cotto, then you’ve got to figure that a fight against Golovkin would bring in well above 1 million buys, because the interest from the boxing world in that fight is HUGE. That’s all people think about is the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that De La Hoya and Golden Boy are going to take Canelo in another direction from Golovkin by having him fight other guys. There are not a lot of options for Canelo other than a tiny handful of fighters. Here are the guys that De La Hoya will likely match Canelo against in 2017:

Billy Joe Saunders

David Lemieux

Kell Brook

None of those guys would result in big fights for Canelo. The U.S casual boxing fans don’t have any idea who Saunders is. It would be like Canelo fighting Liam Smith again and bringing in 300,000 buys on HBO pay-per-view. Brook isn’t well known in the U.S either. The casual fans that do know of Brook know him from being the guy that was stopped in the 5th round by Golovkin last September.

Once Canelo has beaten the above three guys in 2017, Golden Boy will need to start really reaching in 2018 by pooling from these fighters for Canelo to fight:

Curtis Stevens

Gabriel Rosado

Tim Bradley

Danny Garcia

I don’t see Golden Boy matching Canelo against middleweights Daniel Jacobs or Chris Eubank Jr., because those would be potentially dangerous fights for Canelo that he could lose.

Likewise, I don’t see Golden Boy matching Canelo against the top junior middleweights like the Charlo brothers, Erislandy Lara or Demetrius Andrade. Welterweights Keith Thurman and Errol Spence Jr. would likely not be considered for Canelo, because of their punching power and boxing skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2ntiodTHgo