By Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) will begin training this week on Wednesday or Thurman for his December 10 title defense on HBO Championship Boxing, according to his trainer Abel Sanchez. Golovkin is supposed to be fighting WBA ‘regular’ 160lb champion Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs), but it’s still unknown at this point if the fight can get made.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler is in negotiations with Jacobs’ manager Al Haymon to try and put the fight together. The World Boxing Association gave the two camps an extension in the negotiations until October 22. If the fight isn’t done by then, it’ll go to a purse bid.
Jacobs’ management attempted to get a larger cut of the revenue from the 75/25 split the WBA had mandated. Team Jacobs asked for a 60/40 split. However, the WBA ruled against the request and kept it 75/25. Golovkin’s promoter Loeffler is likely going to give Jacobs an increase to 70/30 at least, but it’s hard to imagine him going much further than that.
Golovkin is the bigger name of the two, and he’s held the WBA title for the past six years since 2010. For Golovkin to give Jacobs a cut of 60/40 or even 65/35, it would be very charitable of him. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if the two sides are unable to agree to a fight. If it goes to a purse bid, Golovkin’s team could lose if Haymon comes up with the winning bid or if Showtime makes a large bid. Golovkin fights on HBO, and Haymon and Showtime would have other ideas. You’d hate to see Golovkin vacate his WBA title over a simple fight like this.
Sanchez says it’s up to Jacobs to take the fight, because he doesn’t care who Golovkin fights. He’ll be in the ring on December 10. If it’s Jacobs, then it’s good. If not, then Golovkin will be fighting someone else.
Abel Sanchez said this to fighthyoe.com about the Golovkin vs. Jacobs fight:
“We have a date, an HBO date, for December the 10th,” said Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez about the Golovkin-Jacobs fight. “The WBA ordered the negotiations between Tom [Loeffler] and Mr. Haymon and Jacobs’ people to try and make the fight for that date. As far as I know, Gennady’s coming into camp either Wednesday or Thursday of this week. So he’s coming into camp like he’s going to fight on December the 10th against Daniel Jacobs. That’s what his mindset is. So if they make it, we’ll be ready. It’s up to Danny and Al and Tom Loeffler to make sure they put the numbers together and everything comes out, and we get a fight on December the 10thon HBO. The reason why we never talked about it [fighting Jacobs] before is because Danny never pushed it. Danny has been the mandatory or the regular champion, which is the mandatory for the super, for two years. He’s never really pushed the issue. We never pushed it either for him, because he obviously didn’t want it. Then the WBA ordered it, so now it’s time for him to put up or shut up. They’ve been negotiating now for a couple or three weeks, a month, and I hope it’s close. To us, it doesn’t matter who steps inside the ropes to fight Golovkin. To me, it doesn’t matter. I’ve approved everybody at 160. So it’s just a matter of them getting the numbers right for everybody concerned,” said Sanchez.
If Golovkin doesn’t fight Jacobs on December 10, then Loeffler is going to need to find an opponent quickly for him to fight as a replacement. There are a lot of top contenders that might be willing to fight Golovkin unless they too drag out the negotiations in the same manner as we’re seeing with Jacobs. Golovkin could face #1 WBC contender Jorge Sebastian Heiland. He’s been waiting for a title shot ever since Miguel Cotto was the WBC champion. It would be nice for Golovkin to get Heiland out of the way so that Chris Eubank Jr., currently ranked #2 by the WBC, slides into the No.1 spot. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Golovkin face him in the future, because Eubank Jr. could always reject the fight if he didn’t want to fight GGG.
