By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Virgil Hunter doesn’t agree with the $15 million offer that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions is making to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for a fight in September. Hunter thinks Canelo and Golden Boy are waiting for Golovkin to get old before they fight him. Golovkin is about to turn 35, so it’s quite possible that they can wait him out until he’s older and no longer the fighter he is today before finally agreeing to fight him.
As far as Hunter is concerned, it’s not a fair offer that Canelo is giving to Triple G, because he wouldn’t be making the big money if he wasn’t fighting the Kazakhstan star. Hunter sees Canelo and Golden Boy waiting Golovkin out until he gets old or gets beaten by someone before they chose to fight him. He can understand that move, because it keeps Canelo from taking another loss on his record.
Hunter feels that Golden Boy wants to avoid any possibility of Canelo losing, which is why they’re waiting on Golovkin to age. Hunter also thinks the catch-weight of 164 ½ pounds for Canelo’s fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6 is another way to keep the red-headed Mexican star from taking a loss. Hunter notes that Chavez Jr. is having problems just trying to make 168lbs. So now he’s being told that he’s got to go below even that at 164.5.
Hunter sees this move by Golden Boy as a way to ensure that their money fighter Canelo has less of a chance of getting beaten by Chavez Jr. Hunter thinks it could backfire on Golden Boy if Chavez Jr. comes into the fight in excellent shape with the help of his strength and conditioning coach Memo Heredia, who is very good at his job.
Hunter says that Canelo’s legacy won’t be the same if he doesn’t face the top fighters when they’re at their best. If Canelo is not going to fight the top guys when they’re at their very best like the great fighters that came before him, then he’ll never be great.
“Not much,” said Hunter to Villianfy when asked what he thinks of the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight. “There’s no reading there. If the governing bodies are good with it, then it gives you a good idea of what kind of sport we’re in where people can pretty much maneuver and do whatever they want. I can’t knock Canelo. If he gets away with it, get away with it. What that does to his legacy, I don’t know,” said Hunter.
There’s no stopping Canelo from moving up in weight to fight Chavez Jr. at super middleweight. The World Boxing Organization is going to give Canelo two weeks or so to make a decision whether he wants to keep their WBO 154lb title after he fights Chavez Jr., but they’re not going to strip him of his title because he’s moving up in weight to fight at 164.5lbs.
I think Canelo might believe that the Chavez Jr. fight will help his legacy rather than hurting it. Chavez Jr. is clearly not at the best point of his career at 30. His accomplishments all took place in the past. Everything since Chavez Jr’s fight with Sergio Martinez in 2012 has been a big career slide. Canelo is catching Chavez Jr. at the right moment just like he caught James Kirkland and Shane Mosley at the right moments in their careers.
Speaking about Canelo’s $15 million offer to Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, Hunter said, “I just heard today, $15 million, take it or leave it. I think even that’s unfair, because you wouldn’t make what you’re going to make; you’re not going to make if he’s not popular. If he wasn’t what he was, you wouldn’t make what you’re making. It’s a leverage thing now. It’s pretty simple. They just wait until he gets old or hopes somebody knocks him out,” said Hunter about Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy waiting for the 34-year-old Golovkin to age more before fighting him,” said Hunter.
It does appear that Canelo and Golden Boy are waiting Golovkin out until he gets old before they fight him. The $15 million flat fee offer for a fight that will make HUGE money is one that has very little chance of being accepted by Golovkin and his promoters at K2. They know what Golovkin brings to the table in terms of fan interest and money.
If Canelo is going to be the one walking away with the lion’s share of the boxing fan’s money for a fight between him and Golovkin, then that’s not a good deal for Triple G. If Team Golovkin knows that he brings in a certain more extra amount of pay-per-view buys than the 300,000 that Canelo brought in for his recent fight against Liam Smith, then you can argue that he should be able to share in that revenue that he helps bring in.
The boxing fans wouldn’t just be paying to see Canelo fight all by himself. They would be interested in seeing him fight Golovkin. Not letting Golovkin share equally in the profits that he helps bring in is obviously not a fair deal for him. What’s really disturbing is that Canelo and Golden Boy aren’t even offering Golovkin a percentage deal of the money the fight brings in. They’re offering him just a flat fee.
Golovkin is the equivalent of just another opponent for Canelo like Liam Smith. That’s not the type of opponent that Golovkin is. He’s a star in his own right. Floyd Mayweather Jr. offered Manny Pacquiao a percentage split of the revenue. It doesn’t look like Golden Boy and Canelo see Golovkin as being popular enough for them to have to give a similar split of the money.
Golden Boy may decide one day that it’s in their best interest to give Golovkin a cut of the revenue once Canelo takes a loss or when his PPV numbers start dropping off. We saw how Floyd Mayweather Jr’s and Pacquiao’s PPV numbers dropped off after their fight in 2015. I believe that the major reason for the drop off wasn’t because of the boxing fans being angry about how much of a dud their ‘fight of the Century’ was in 2015, but rather because they stopped facing the high caliber fighters that the fans wanted to see them fight.
In Mayweather’s fight after Pacquiao, he chose to fight Andre Berto, a fighter that was not one of the relevant fighters of today. In Pacquiao’s two fights since the Mayweather fight, he’s fought Tim Bradley and Jessie Vargas. Those are not the fighters the fans wanted to see Pacquiao fight obviously. If Canelo is just going to fight guys that have little chance of beating him like Miguel Cotto, Chavez Jr., Amir Khan and Liam Smith, then his PPV numbers are likely going to likely start to wither away to the point where his career will be imploding. I think the boxing public will be turned off by Canelo and see him as just a guy that mainly takes easy fights. Once Canelo is perceived like that by the casual fans, then I don’t think he’ll be able to turn his career around to be the fighter that he could have been. In other words, the fans might not come back due to them seeing Canelo as just a fighter that takes safe fights against guys that they have little interest in seeing him fight.
You can argue that Canelo should already be a fighter that brings in over 1 million PPV buys per fight at this stage in his career. I think the reason Canelo isn’t at the level is because he and Golden Boy haven’t been taking the risky fights that they should have been taking. Instead of Canelo fighting the likes of Shane Mosley, Kirkland, Afredo Angulo, Liam Smith, Chavez Jr, Khan and Miguel Cotto, he should have been fighting fighters like Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Daniel Jacobs, and Julian “J-Rock” Williams. Canelo also should have fought Erislandy Lara in a rematch, because there are too many boxing fans that believe that he lost to the Cuban fighter in 2014. I think Canelo lost to Lara too and was given a gift decision. Lara was the better fighter in that match. The fact that Canelo and Golden Boy didn’t see that fight as worthy of a rematch, it suggests that there’s some worry on their part whether they could come out on top in a second fight. When Mayweather was involved in controversial decisions against Marcos Maidana and Jose Luis Castillo in the past, he fought them a second time to clear up the controversy. But for some reason Canelo decided not to clear up the controversy of his win over Lara. I think that move hurt Canelo’s career, because it showed the fans that he wasn’t willing to clear up the controversy.
“Listen, when was the last time he fought at 165?” said Hunter about Chavez Jr. “It’s been a while. He’s had problems making 168. ‘Again, I’ll fight you, but you’re going to kill yourself to fight me. So it’s going to guarantee me a win.’ But he does have a good conditioning coach, who has knowledge and is just coming off a fight. I hear he’s weighing 180, and if he does it right, he could be fine. Chavez will come in the bigger guy. He certainly may win it. Chavez is a very good fighter. He’s got technique, he’s tough and anything can happen on any given night. But at the same time, I understand Golden Boy’s position. It’s not smart for Canelo to have a loss yet. Demetrius [Adrade]. For instance, they wouldn’t dare fight him. They’d get beat. What does he bring to the table? But if you’re the draw, it doesn’t matter who you fight, but you still get the same money. Canelo’s a good fighter. He has the potential to be great, but the only way you’re going to be great is to face your opponent at his best. If you’re not going to fight him at his best, then you’re not going to be the best. You might be a cash cow, because the great Hispanic fans will make sure of that. That’s the true blessing that he has a fan base. But he’ll never be great if you have to make the other fighter make concessions to fight because the great ones never did,” said Hunter.
I agree with Hunter about Canelo getting beaten by Demetrius Andrade. I think Golden Boy Promotions would never put Canelo in with Andrade. I don’t see them ever putting Canelo in with Jermall Charlo either. I think that’s a fight that never happens, even if Charlo becomes the No.1 guy at 160 in the near future. I see Canelo staying in a different lane than him.
It’s going to look strange though to the boxing public if Canelo exists at the same time in the middleweight division as Charlo and the two not fighting each other. Canelo and Golden Boy can’t wait out the 26-year-old Charlo, because he’s the same age as them, and he looks like someone is going to be at the top of the sport for many years. Charlo isn’t just a guy with good hand speed and punch accuracy. Charlo is also a huge puncher. If Canelo doesn’t fight Charlo like he’s not fighting Golovkin, I think it stunts his career, because the fans will likely view him as ducking the former IBF junior middleweight champion. In ideal world, Canelo would fight Charlo and show the fans that he at least is willing to risk his neck by taking that fight, but past events suggest that he won’t do that. Canelo hasn’t fought Golovkin despite the fans interest, so it’s possible he’ll do the same thing with the Jermall Charlo fight.
It’ll be interesting to see if the move by Golden Boy and Canelo to make Chavez Jr. agree to a catch-weight of 164.5lbs winds up backfiring on them. If Chavez Jr. beats Canelo, it’s going to be a huge blow to his career. I can see Canelo’s PPV numbers dropping off after a loss like that and never recovering UNLESS he avenges the loss to Chavez Jr. Even then, I think Canelo will need to change the way he’s being matched by Golden Boy for him to bring his PPV numbers back to where they are not. The thing is, Canelo hasn’t yet replaced Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao as a huge 1 million PPV guy in boxing.
Golden Boy likes to say that Canelo is the new PPV guy in the sport, and that’s true. Canelo is the top PPV fighter now, but he’s more like a stunted replacement for Mayweather and Pacquiao rather than a full replacement. Canelo isn’t bringing in the huge PPV numbers that Mayweather and Pacquiao used to enjoy on a regular basis during their careers. The only reason I can see why Canelo isn’t bringing in the huge PPV numbers is because he’s not taking risky fights the way he should be doing.
Like I said, instead of Canelo fighting Jermall Charlo, Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Demetrius Andrade, Erislandy Lara and Julian Williams, he’s taking safe fights against Chavez Jr., Amir Khan, Liam Smith, Alfredo Angulo, James Kirkland and Miguel Cotto. Those aren’t fights that bring in suspense from the fans. They’re fights that Canelo is/was the clear A-side and with little chance of losing.
