By Dan Ambrose: Like a lot of boxing fans, James Kirkland says he prefers to see Saul “Canelo” Alvarez face middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in 2017 rather than seeing Canelo fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy are currently in negotiations with Chavez Jr’s manager Al Haymon for a fight on Cinco de Mayo on May 6. Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. is pretty much a mismatch. Chavez Jr. has looked poor in most of his fights since 2012, and he’s not been fighting on a frequent basis in the last five years of his career. Why Golden Boy wants to match Canelo against a non-relevant fighter like Chavez Jr. rather than someone that is active and fighting at a high level is what many boxing fans want to know.
The negotiations don’t seem to be going swimmingly right now, as Chavez Jr. said on Thursday that Canelo is asking for 5 times the purse that he’s been offered. Chavez Jr. has been offered $5 million. We may not see Canelo fight Chavez Jr. OR Golovkin if Golden Boy chooses to lowball both fighters, which appears to be happening. The offer for Golovkin is $15 million. which you can argue is chicken feed for a fight that could bring in over $100 million. If Canelo is getting $75 million and Golovkin just $15 million, you can understand why the fight might not happen.
Kirkland, 32, has a fight next month against Puerto Rican star Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) on HBO pay-per-view on February 25 at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas. Kirkland is a big underdog in the fight. The main reason for that is because he hasn’t won a fight in four years, and he hasn’t fought in close to two years. It’s hard to sink your teeth around the idea of someone fighting on HBO PPV that hasn’t fought a fight since 2013.
Cotto’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports went along with the idea of him fighting Kirkland. but they probably should have nixed it by telling him in a firm manner that he needs to find a relevant fighter that is winning fights on a yearly basis a least instead of someone who hasn’t won a fight in 4 years.
Kirkland will be fighting Cotto at a catchweight of 153lbs. That’s obviously going to make Kirkland’s job even harder. It’s disappointing that Cotto is a catchweight for the fight, because he’s already got the deck stacked heavily in his favor in him choosing a guy with a chin problem, and who has fought only a handful of times in the last six years. Kirkland used to be a busy fighter earlier in his career but he’s become just an opponent at this stage in the game. It’s a waste of potential, because he could be a decent contender if he stayed busy. I don’t think Kirkland could compete against the Charlo brothers, Erislandy Lara or Demetrius Andrade, but he’d at least be a good contender.
“I want to see that fight because the two are special and have very different abilities and they are good, they are very explosive and because of the strike, that’s why I would like to see that fight,” Kirkland said about him preferring to see Canelo fight Golovkin rather than Chavez Jr. in speaking on ESPN Nation on ESPN Deportes.
Golovkin is supposed to be Canelo’s opponent for September this year if the fight can get made. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya has said repeatedly that the Canelo-Cotto fight will get made in 2017, but a lot of boxing fans think he’s just saying that in order to keep fans thinking that the fight will get made.
It’s in Canelo’s best interest for the fans to think that a fight against Golovkin will be taking place this year, because they’ll be more willing to purchase his pay-per-view fights against the over-matched guys that they throw in the ring with him. Golden Boy’s last two opponents (Liam Smith and Amir Khan) for Canelo were underwhelming to say the least. Those were both mismatches going into the fights. Before that, Canelo beat the smallish 5’7” Cotto, and then Kirkland. Only one of Canelo’s last four opponents has been a good fighter, and that was Cotto. The other three, Liam Smith, Amir Khan and James Kirkland, were largely mediocre fighters.
“I have not faced Miguel Cotto, so I cannot tell you about him,” said Kirkland. “What I can tell you about Canelo Alvarez is that he has great ability. I’ve seen him up in the ring; I’ve felt his punch in addition. I’d have to go with He is a boxer who keeps himself active,” said Kirkland.
Kirkland isn’t saying what his prediction is for a fight between Canelo and Golovkin. He just wants to see the fight. The 34-year-old Golovkin has been waiting a fight against Canelo for two years now. If the fight fails to happen in 2017, then you can guess that Golden Boy wants to wait a longer for the Kazakhstan fighter to age more before they put him in with him.
Golovkin did not look good in his last fight against welterweight Kell Brook last September. Brook used a lot of movement and landed some nice shots, but in the end, he started to take a beating in the 5th and his corner threw in the towel. It looked like Brook gave up before the round started. His body language looked like a defeated fighter after the 4th. He had taken some heavy blows in that round, and he did not look like a happy camper going out for the 5th. When Brook stopped throwing punches completely, it was clear that he had quit and needed saving by his corner. They obliged promptly by throwing in the towel to keep him from being finished on the canvas rather than his feet. The fight said a lot about both fighters. Golovkin is aging, and Brook arguably quits when the going gets tough.
Kirkland was little more than a speed bump for Canelo, who knocked him out in three rounds in May 2015 at the Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. Out of all the potential opponents that could have been selected for Canelo to fight from the 154lb division, Golden Boy chose the inactive Kirkland, who hadn’t fought in a year and a half at the time he was hand-picked for the fight.
Kirkland’s last fight before facing Canelo in 2015 was against Glen Tapia in 2013. Before that, Kirkland hadn’t fought in over a year and a half. Kirkland has not been active fighter since 2012. That’s why it’s hard to understand why Golden Boy picked him out for Canelo to fight instead of them matching Canelo against the best fighters in the 154lb division like Demetrius Andrade, the Charlo brothers, and a rematch with Erislandy Lara, who Canelo beat by a very questionable 12 round decision in 2014.