By Eric Baldwin: The World Boxing Association is stepping in to push the never-ending negotiations between WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and WBA ‘regular’ champion Daniel Jacobs to their conclusion by giving the fighters a 7-day deadline to wrap up their negotiations, according to RingTV.
It’s unclear whether a purse bid will be ordered at the end of the seven day deadline if the fighters haven’t reached a deal. This is good news for the boxing fans, because the negotiation have been dragging out a long, long time without the WBA stepping in to force the two sides to reach a deal.
There was a canceled purse bid in the past in hopes that Golovkin and Jacobs’ management would work out a deal. They haven’t unfortunately. The problem is the 75/25 purse split that Golovkin is entitled to as the WBA champion. Jacobs’ management wants more. Just how much more is the big question? Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler reportedly feels confident that he can reach a deal within the seven-day deadline, but that remains to be seen.
Loeffler hasn’t been able to reach a deal yet, and it’s been ages since the negotiations started. The stalled negotiations caused Golovkin to miss his December 10. Whatever money he makes for the fight, you have to factor in that he missed one of his fight dates in order to make the fight happen. In other words, Golovkin’s pay for the fight won’t make up for his lost date. You can argue that Golovkin and Loeffler should have just went to purse bid already, because they at least would have been able to get the fight over in December rather than having it stretch out into early 2017.
The fight date they’re looking at potentially is March 18. The venue could be Madison Square Garden in New York, according to RingTV. That’s a venue that could work for both sides. However, Jacobs is from Brooklyn, New York. If the fight goes to a purse bid and Jacobs’ manager Al Haymon wins the bid, then he would likely stage the fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
That would be a win-win situation for Jacobs. It wouldn’t be all bad though for Golovkin, because a lot of his boxing fans would purchase tickets for the fight. There would be some benefit for the 29-year-old Jacobs in fighting in front of his own boxing fans, but probably not enough to mean much. Golovkin is not going to let it go the judges. Jacobs would need to either KO Golovkin or suffer the same fate as his last 23 opponents by getting knocked out. It’s always bad to get knocked out in front of your own fans. So it might not be a great thing that Jacobs could wind up getting the Golovkin fight in Brooklyn. It only helps if the fight goes to the scorecards.
If Golovkin’s management loses the purse bid, it’s unclear if Jacobs’ manager Haymon will stick the fight on Premier Boxing Champions on Showtime or on regular network TV.
There’s also a possibility that the Golovkin-Jacobs fight could wind up on HBO pay-per-view. With the recent Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev fight bringing in a reported 160,000 buys on HBO, there’s a chance that a fight between Golovkin and Jacobs might be able to do as well. Golovkin is very popular in the U.S, and Jacobs has a lot of fans. If the Golovkin-Jacobs fight could do as well as the Ward-Kovalev fight, then that might be a win-win situation.
It would depend on how well the Golovkin vs. Jacobs fight was marketed by HBO. It might turn out to be a fairly big fight. That would be a huge plus for Golovkin’s boxing career if he could prove that he can bring in over 200,000 buys. Jacobs would obviously have a lot to do with for the success. We’ll have to see if Golovkin and Jacobs’ management go that route with sticking the fight on HBO PPV. It could be the best way for Golovkin and Jacobs to get the most money. If it’s just on regular HBO, it’s unclear how much money could be made for that fight. Golovkin needs a name to help him become a pay-per-view star. Jacobs could be a popular enough guy to take Golovkin to the next level.
Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez said recently that March is the cutoff point for the Jacobs fight. They either make the fight with Jacobs by March or they go in another direction. If the fight fails to happen in March, it’s open to debate what happens in terms of Jacobs and Golovkin’s WBA titles. Does one of them have to give up their titles? The WBA’s seven-day deadline is going to force Golovkin and Jacobs to make a deal. If they don’t, it will go to a purse bid. If Golovkin’s management isn’t happy with the results of the purse bid, they can always have Golovkin vacate his WBA title.
Since Golovkin wants to unify all of the titles in the middleweight division, he would be taking a backwards step in giving up a title. Who knows how long it will take Golovkin to get a shot at the WBO belt held by Billy Joe Saunders. If Saul Canelo Alvarez wins that title off of Saunders, Golovkin could wind up waiting forever to get a crack at that belt. If Golovkin loses the WBA title, he’ll still need to negotiate with Jacobs at a later date if he wants to try and win that belt back. Golovkin is better off getting the fight over with now.
Some boxing fans believe that Jacobs has a good chance of beating GGG, because they feel he’s improved since his loss to Dmitry Pirog in 2010. We’re going to find out if that’s the case. It wasn’t a good sign that Jacobs was knocked down hard by the light hitting Sergio Mora recently.