Mayweather says Canelo shouldn’t fight Golovkin yet

By Boxing News - 10/09/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he’s not in favor of having WBO junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin right now. Mayweather feels that the fight still needs to be built more before it takes place. He thinks it’s still too early yet for Canelo to be fighting Golovkin.

Mayweather says if Canelo were under his Mayweather Promotions banner, he wouldn’t allow the fight to happen against Triple G. Mayweather wants Golovkin to move up to 168 and fight his fighter WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack in what he calls a “Tune-up” bout for Golovkin.

Mayweather says that after Golovkin fights Badou Jack, then he would go to Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya and speak to him about letting Golovkin get a crack against Canelo. It’s unknown how serious Mayweather is in letting Golovkin fight Canelo, because he seems to be reluctant to that fight taking place. This isn’t the first time that Mayweather has said that the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight needs to wait.

Mayweather said to Fighthype.com:

“If they were extraordinary, I made them look ordinary,” said Mayweather about the different high level opponents he faced during his long pro career. “When history books are written, they ain’t going to say, ‘He was a coward. He was scared.’ You know what they’re going to say? ‘He was the smartest.’ If Canelo was under my banner, I wouldn’t let him fight Triple G right now. I’m in boxing. I’m a promoter, and I see the business side. You must build a fight, and built a fight.”

The real question is why does Mayweather not want Canelo to fight Golovkin now? Does Mayweather really care about Canelo and Golovkin making the most money possible by letting their fight marinate as much as possible, or is does he not want them to fight for fear that Canelo will get obliterated? It could be a self-serving move on Mayweather’s part to not wish that Golovkin fight Canelo. If Golovkin destroys Canelo, it would diminish Mayweather’s own win over Canelo in the eyes of the boxing public. Up to now, Mayweather is the only one to beat Canelo in defeating him by a very, very dull 12 round unanimous decision in 2013. If Golovkin beats Canelo BADLY, it may cause fans to forget about Mayweather. Golovkin is becoming the new star in the sport nationally in the U.S. Golovkin’s fans aren’t just with a certain segment. He’s gaining fans everywhere. If Golovkin defeats Canelo by a knockout, it would top Mayweather’s biggest win of his career, which was a boring 12 round decision over Canelo in 2013. You can’t count Mayweather’s win over the past his best Manny Pacquiao as being a big deal, because Mayweather let the fight marinate to the point where Pacquiao wasn’t the same fighter that he’d been in his 20s. That’s when they should have fought. Pacquiao was also injured before the Mayweather fight, so there are a lot of boxing fans that didn’t give Mayweather full credit. Pacquiao was old and he was injured when Mayweather fought him. Golovkin would be fighting Canelo in his prime, and he wouldn’t be asking for a catch-weight handicap for weight like Mayweather did in his fight against Canelo in 2013.

This is probably music to the ears of Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy, who don’t seem to be in a big rush at all in matching their golden goose with Triple G. While it would potentially be a good career move for Canelo to take the fight now with Golovkin in order to turn him into a crossover star with boxing fans nationally in the U.S, it doesn’t appear that Golden Boy is ready to make that move.

There would be risk involved for Canelo. If he loses BADLY to Golovkin in getting knocked out, then the small amount of pay–per-view buys that he’s been getting for mismatches against guys like Liam Smith, Alfredo Angulo and Amir Khan could dry up. It would be seriously bad news if Canelo were to get knocked out by Golovkin, and then his pay-per-view numbers dwindle from an average of 300,000 to 100,000 or fewer.

The boxing public that pays to see fights on pay-per-view could make the conscious decision to save their hard-earned money rather than spending on paying to see a flawed Canelo fight over-matched opposition. Fans are that way. If they believe that a fighter isn’t the best, they sometimes don’t want to pay to see them fight. We saw how Manny Pacquiao’s PPV numbers dropped off after his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Mayweather in 2015. Of course, Mayweather’s PPV numbers dropped off as well, thanks to his decision to play it safe in his last fight of his career by fighting Andre Berto instead of a younger more talented welterweight.

Mayweather probably won’t get his wish in Golovkin choosing to move up to super middleweight to fight Mayweather Promotions stable fighter Badou Jack. Golovkin would obviously face Jack if he had a huge following, and if the boxing world wanted the match. Never the less, Jack isn’t a popular fighter, and there’s no reason for Golovkin to move up to 168 to fight him. Golovkin would actually be doing Jack and Mayweather a HUGE favor if he were to face him. It would be a fight where Jack would get something out of it, but not Golovkin. If Golovkin wants to fight guys with no fan base, he’s fine where he is defending his IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight titles against the no name contenders that are lining up waiting for their shot against him. Most of the contenders in the middleweight division aren’t popular.

Canelo is one of the rare popular guys at 160. Golden Boy says Canelo is a 154llb fighter, but he’s clearly a large middleweight that is able to drain down in weight to make 154. For how much longer Canelo can make 154 is the big question. I believe it’s been at least two years since Canelo’s weight was revealed on the night of his fights by HBO. We don’t know how much Canelo weighs any longer after he rehydrates. Some boxing fans think he rehydrates into the 180s. Amir Khan, who Canelo beat earlier this year, says he rehydrated to 186 for their fight.

“We don’t mind letting Triple G coming up to 168 to fight a tune-up bout [against Badou Jack], but it’s not really going to be a tune-up. It’s going to be a hell of a fight,” said Mayweather. “We’ve got a guy right here, a solid boxer, a good chin, a hard worker. Triple G, a guy that comes forward. I mean, I want the fans to vote, vote for the fight to happen, then I’ll try and talk to Oscar [De La Hoya] to see if the Canelo-Triple G fight can happen,” said Mayweather.

Golovkin isn’t going to take that fight against Badou. If Golovkin does move up to 168, it might be to fight someone like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or Gilberto Ramirez in the future. Those are the only worthwhile fighters for Golovkin to face right now at 168. Badou Jack needs to fight IBF champion James DeGale so that he can increase his popularity.

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