By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez says Gennady “GGG” Golovkin has already been given an offer that he doesn’t deserve in the $15 million offer Golden Boy made to him for a fight in September this year. Canelo says that if Golovkin doesn’t accept the offer then there is no fight between them. Unfortunately, it sounds like the offer from Golden Boy and Canelo to Golovkin was a ‘take it or leave it offer’ rather than a starting point for negotiations.
There’s a lot of boxing fans that want to see Golovkin and Canelo fight each other. They’re both very popular fighters.
If Canelo doesn’t see Golovkin as deserving of $15 million for the fight, then it suggests that he doesn’t rate him as a fighter. Canelo can go ahead and not fight Golovkin if he wants, but if he ever wins a title at 160 not involving Golovkin, he’ll be perceived as a paper champion, because Golovkin will have most of the titles.
The offer that Canelo and Golden Boy made to Golovkin was a flat fee offer rather than a percentage of the revenue for the fight. This means that Canelo would likely make much than Golovkin with the percentage. If the fight makes $200 million, then Golovkin winds up with his much smaller flat fee. Fighters that receive flat fee offers are usually the B-side fighters that aren’t popular enough to receive a percentage of the revenue.
It’s interesting that Golden Boy and Canelo are only offering Golovkin a flat fee when he has three of the four world titles at 160, and is perceived to be the best fighter in the middleweight division. Golovkin is also very popular in his own right.
“That’s the idea (to face Golovkin, after beating Chavez Jr.) and we also offered him an amount to get the fight, but always rivals like them are looking for a lot of interest, which they do not deserve,” said Canelo to TV Azteca and Multimedia TV. “They are looking for more money than anything, so this complicates things, but we made the offer. There is nothing if he doesn’t accept and that fight is made this year, “said Canelo.
It sounds like the Canelo-Golovkin fight won’t get made. If Golden Boy and Canelo aren’t going to increase the off made to Golovkin, then we might not see the fight take place between them this year.
Canelo needs to worry about winning his next fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6, because he just might lose that fight if he’s not careful. If Canelo loses to Chavez Jr, then Golovkin will really be in a great position to get a bigger cut of the money. Canelo would win and still see his stock decline if he doesn’t fight in an impressive manner. Chavez Jr. might give Canelo a lot of problems, and fight well enough to win but still lose by a controversial decision. Canelo has been involved with a couple of controversial decisions in the past against Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara.
It’s interesting that Canelo sees Golovkin as not deserving of the $15 million offered to him for the fight. If Golovkin doesn’t rate the $15M that was offered to him, then who does rate that? Is it Miguel Cotto, who is viewed by a lot of boxing fans as at the end of the line? II don’t think the fans are going to be interested in paying to see Canelo and Cotto fight each other a second time. This fight might not bring even one-third of the numbers that it did when they fought each two years ago in 2015. Cotto hasn’t fought since that defeat, and he’s been looking to fight beatable inactive fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez and James Kirkland.
Golovkin has a fight on March 18 next month against Danny Jacobs on HBO PPV. Golovkin could put himself in a great position to get a percentage of the revenue against Canelo if he beats Jacobs and impresses. The Golovkin-Jacobs fight will need to bring in a lot of PPV buys though, because if it does poorly on HBO, Golden Boy might use that as an excuse not to offer him a percentage of the money for the fight.
By turning down the $15 million flat fee offer, Golovkin’s management could give Golden Boy an excuse for them to move on and have Canelo fight other less threatening fighters. That doesn’t mean that Golden Boy won’t attempt to restart the negotiations with Golovkin in the future. It just means that they might wait a year or two before making another flat fee offer. This would help Canelo in theory because Golovkin would age a little more, and become more beatable.
Golovkin is about to turn 35 now. The time is on the 26-year-old Canelo’s side. He might be good enough to beat Golovkin if the fight was made right now, but if Golden Boy waits him out until he’s older, then it increases Canelo’s chances of winning. But Golden Boy will need to be careful who they match Canelo against in the meantime, because he could lose to other fighters if he’s matched too tough.