By Chris Williams: Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez reportedly is not going budge from the $10 million offer his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are offering unbeaten middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for a fight next September in 2017 on HBO pay-per-view.
Canelo is one of those types of fighters that when he makes his mind up, you’re probably not going to change it no matter what. In that case, Golovkin has a choice to make. He can either accept the $10 million guaranteed offer or he can move on and continue to fight guys like Dominic Wade for smaller money.
Canelo is the bigger name, he brings in the fans, and he’s the pay-per-view attraction. Golovkin is a good fighter, but he’s not a star. GGG is just a regular HBO fighter with a large following from the hardcore boxing fans in the U.S, but not from the casual fans.
If Golovkin doesn’t accept the fair offer given to him by Canelo, he’s likely going to be shutout by the Mexican star forever. Canelo isn’t the type that is going to plead with his opponents to accept his offer. If Canelo’s offer isn’t accepted, then he’ll move on and Golovkin will be forgotten. The moment will have past for GGG, and he’ll have blown his chance. I don’t think even Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy will be able to convince him to change his mind once he’s decided that it’s not worth it to try and ever put a fight together with Golovkin. That’s why it’s important for Golovkin to accept the money now while it’s still on the table for him to grab. The $10 million is there, Golovkin. It’s all yours. Now what are going to do? Are you going to snatch it up or turn your head in disgust, as if the money offer isn’t good enough for you? If you do that, Canelo could walk away and leave you to the smaller money fights for the remainder of your career.
The reality is that Canelo deserves the bigger slice of the revenue for a fight against Golovkin. Boxing fans seem mistakenly believe that a fight between him and Golovkin is going to bring in a huge amount of money. I don’t think it will. Golden Boy is taking a risk in giving Golovkin a guaranteed offer of $10 million, because if the fight does poorly, they’ll be losing out. Canelo isn’t going to make $100 million for the Golovkin fight like a lot of fans seem to think.
At best, I can see Canelo walking away with maybe $20 million. Yes, that’s double of what Golovkin has been offered for the fight, but that’s only fair, because Canelo is the name fighter. He’s the one from nearby Mexico, who has his fans from over there and over in the U.S supporting him. Canelo is the A-side in this fight. Golovkin is the B-side, and he needs to understand that. Golovkin isn’t going to get a 50-50 deal as the B-side attraction. He’s not going to get a 55-45 split either.
Even former Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer realizes that Canelo deserves the lion’s share of the loot for the Golovkin fight.
Schaefer said, “It’s a split where you take into consideration Golovkin’s value, and not just a flat fee. I think there should be an upside proportionally. Truth be told, Canelo is the bigger name and the bigger star. It’s not about who is better or who is perceived to be better. It’s about who is the bigger star, and Canelo is the bigger star. Does he deserve the lion’s share? Absolutely! You need to be fair to your opponent as well and give him some upside. Maybe after a certain number of homes [give Golovkin some pay-per-view upside].
If Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler is so intent on getting a percentage split of the revenue for the fight, then Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya should tell him flat out that the percentage deal will be along the lines of 75-25 or maybe 80-20. That’s a good deal for Golovkin. If I was Golovkin, I would take it happily. He’s not going to make that kind of green fighting the many no name contenders in the 160lb division.
Golovkin isn’t going to get a second money fight against welterweight Kell Brook. After the way he hurt Brook in breaking his eye socket, I doubt that any welterweights will ever want to fight him or Canelo ever again. It’s too risky. The only decent money fights for Golovkin at 160 are Daniel Jacobs, Chris Eubank Jr. and Billy Joe Saunders. Canelo can give Golovkin his biggest payday, and he should take the offer given to him while it’s still on the table.
I get the feeling that if Golovkin turns down Canelo’s offer of $10 million, the Mexican star will walk away from the negotiation process and wash his hands of him and never choose to negotiate a fight with him again. In other words, I think Canelo will ignore Golovkin permanently, because he’ll feel that he gave him his chance and he didn’t take it. Canelo is too big of a star for him to waste time with fighters that aren’t accepting his offer, which he feels is more than fair.
Golovkin will be making more than $10 million for the Canelo fight. Golden Boy is going to clearly let him have some pay-per-view upside as well. Just how much is unknown. It’s possible that Golovkin could make another $2 million or more for the fight from the pay-per-view upside. That would increase Golovkin’s total pot to $12 million. At best, I can see Canelo getting $25 million for the fight. It’s not as if he’s going to be getting a lot more money than Golovkin. If this was a fight like the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao mega-fight from 2015, then it would be understandable for Golovkin and his promoter to want more than $10 million. That would be totally unfair if all Golovkin was going to get was $10 million for a fight that could bring in over $300 million. But the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight isn’t that type of fight. There isn’t that much interest, because Canelo isn’t as big a star as Mayweather and Pacquiao were. Golovkin obviously isn’t anywhere close to Pacquiao and Mayweather, because he’s not even a PPV fighter.