By Joshua Blessman: Is middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin ducking Canelo? Yes, resoundingly in my opinion. Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy has most recently offered Golovkin $15 million plus some share of the pay-per-view. The previous offer was $10 million. Could Golovkin make anywhere near this amount of money fighting someone else? No way!
His only PPV fight brought in disappointment numbers against David Lemieux. Plus, he has yet to face an A-fighter in a prime or any elite fighters for that matter. Daniel Jacobs will be a step up, but Jacobs is not elite. Golovkin is fighting Jacobs on March 18 on Sky Box Office pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden, New York.
Canelo, on the other hand, has been a definite box office success. He has brought in huge PPV numbers and fought three of the greatest boxers of our generation, including a prime Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a just leaving prime Miguel Cotto. True Hall of Famers. Let’s keep it 100% here. If Golovkin really wanted to fight Canelo, he would step it up and take the $15million, which is way more than he deserves anyway in my view.
Mayweather was the B-side when he fought Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. Mayweather received $25 million in their fight and moved up in weight to fight the Golden Boy. Mayweather knew he was the B-side and stepped up to the plate when it came time. He took the risk and the lower pay day to make his mark. Canelo is no De La Hoya and Golovkin is no Mayweather. $15 million is an amazing offer that could effectively catapult Golovkin’s career if he wins the fight. Offer me $15million to fight Canelo and I will accept. Shoot, give me $1million and I’ll fight Golovkin and Canelo. Canelo is the A-side here, not Golovkin. It’s not even close.
Golovkin and his promoters simply refuse to fight Canelo and constantly use money as an excuse despite the fact that Golovkin has nowhere near the star power of Canelo and has not faced any elite opposition yet. If Golovkin is the fighter he and the boxing media portray him to be, stop complaining and take the fight. Step it up like Mayweather did in his break out fight against De La Hoya. It’s obvious Canelo is tired of all the talk from Golovkin and his promoter. He gets extremely frustrated when people ask him about the fight. Yet, Golovkin and the media flip it around like Canelo is the one who is scared to fight.
Canelo wants the fight now! Golovkin and his promoter should just stop talking and sign the dotted line. Golovkin will never make as much money fighting anyone else and he is stalling his career by continuing to duck Canelo. Mayweather stepped up to fight Manny Pacquiao. He went up to him face-to-face at a basketball game and they hashed it out. Despite what the Mayweather haters say, unlike Golovkin, Mayeather has always fought the very best even when he was smaller or had disadvantages. Golovkin’s refusal to fight Canelo is surprising given that Golovkin is the bigger man and the offer is very high. Golovkin is not a big money star and is far from it.
A big pet peeve of boxing fans has always been a fighter that faces weak opposition, gets a bunch of KO’s and doesn’t prove himself in the ring by facing elite opposition. Is Golovkin a good fighter? Of course. Is he a great fighter? No one knows. He and his promoters are depriving us the opportunity to find out. Heck, all this is disregarding the fact that Golovkin has refused to move up in weight to fight the good fighters at super middleweight and Light heavyweight, even though he has lacked serious opposition at middleweight. Many great champions have done so. He’s already 34. I guess $15 million isn’t enough to cover the fear or risk involved in fighting Canelo. I wonder what price will be.
J Bless