By Allan Fox: Tom Loeffler says the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin rematch is not a certainly for May 5. Loeffler says he’s still working with Eric Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions to try and get the Canelo-Golovkin fight finalized. Ultimately, it’ll come down to Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) to decide whether to agree to the offer that Golden Boy gives for the fight.
“He’s going to make the final decision,” Loeffler said to Fighthype about Golovkin being the one to decide on Golden Boy’s offer for the rematch against Canelo. “We’re going to see if we can work out the final terms with Golden Boy,” said Leoffler.
If Golovkin doesn’t like the idea if getting the business by Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions, then there won’t be a second fight. Golovkin is going to want a fair deal for the rematch. He’s probably feeling none too happy about not being given the win for the previous fight with Canelo, and he might not want to agree to the same financial deal as the first fight. It wouldn’t be surprising if Golovkin turns up his nose and walks away from the rematch with Canelo if he feels the purse isn’t an improvement over the last one.
Loeffler says the 12 round draw that was handed down by the judges for the first Canelo-GGG fight last September really hurt Golovkin as far as the negotiations for the second fight. Instead of Team Golovkin coming into the negotiations with Golden By and Canelo in a position of strength from having won the previous fight, they’re coming into it with a draw, and that changes everything. Loeffler doesn’t come out and say it, but it’s almost like the previous fight never happened. It’s a huge plus for Canelo, because it helps him get the same financial terms as last time, even though he was seen as the loser of the fight by most boxing fans. That helps Canelo get more money than he would have gotten for the rematch. The scoring by the judges for the first fight was a bad deal for Golovkin because it’ll keep from making a lot more money than he would have. It also mars Golovkin’s perfect ring record by putting draw instead of a win.
Loeffler says Canelo probably wants the rematch against Golovkin to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada like last time. The two fighters fought at the T-Mobile Arena on September 16 last year. The judges scored it 118-110 for Canelo, 115-113 for Golovkin and 114-114.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a certainty, but I’ve been talking to Golden Boy on a regular basis with Eric Gomez,” said Loeffler about the Canelo-Golovkin rematch negotiations. “We’re close but unless you have it signed and everything is completely agreed…on a big fight like this, anything can happen. Until we have everything finalized, we can’t announce anything,” Loeffler said.
Loeffler says Golovkin is at home in Kazakhstan visiting his family. Once he comes back, then they’ll continue to work on trying to get the fight finalized with Canelo. Golovkin will need to agree to whatever offer Golden Boy is making or has made to him. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya has already said that it’s up to Golovkin to agree to the fight or not. That means that Golden Boy has already made their offer of what they expect Golovkin to accept for the second fight with Canelo.
It’s going to be up to him whether he wants to agree to it or not. You can understand why Golovkin wouldn’t be eager to accept the rematch if it has the exact same terms as the first fight. With the negotiations reflecting the general public’s perception that Golovkin won, it means Canelo gets to ride on the back of Golovkin for the same purse as last time. Golovkin will still make more money than he will fighting anyone else in boxing, but the same goes for Canelo. He’s not going to make similar money fighting anyone else in the sport. If Floyd Mayweather Jr. showed a sudden burst of energy and wanted to fight Canelo, then he’d obviously make more money fighting him again, but that’s very unlikely to happen. Mayweather is in his golden years, and he’s no longer interested in fighting against boxers.
Mayweather arguably hurt the Canelo-Golovkin promotion last summer when he chose to stick his high priced event fight against UFC star Conor McGregor 3 weeks ahead of the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight on August 26. It cost boxing fans $100 to order the Mayweather-McGregor fight on pay-per-view. There’s no way of knowing how many boxing fans chose not to order the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight on HBO PPV due to them having paid to see the Mayweather vs. McGregor event. The good news now is Mayweather probably make another comeback to upstage the Canelo-GGG fight. Mayweather hasn’t said anything yet about wanting to fight against, so it’s possible that he won’t. It would be in Canelo and GGG’s best interest not to get their fight negotiated too quickly though, because if they agree on it now, Mayweather could in theory quickly schedule a rematch against McGregor and stick the fight in front of the Canelo-Golovkin fight like he did last time.
”We felt he [Golovkin] won. Our whole team felt he won,” Loeffler said about the Canelo-Golovkin fight. ”We had it scored like HBO had it scored, at 8-4. It didn’t seem complicated to score the fight. He [Golovkin] was the aggressor. He was the one coming forward. He landed more punches in 10 of the 12 rounds. It didn’t seem that complicated to score it,” Loeffler said.
The scores from the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight last year were seen as a black eye to the sport of boxing. Golden Boy obviously doesn’t feel that way, but the scoring benefited their fighter more than it did Golovkin, who appeared to win the fight. Canelo didn’t appear to win, and he was booed afterwards by his own boxing fans at the T-Mobile Arena. Golden Boy don’t want to admit it, but the controversy surrounding the draw hurt their fighter Canelo, because he came away with the look that he’d been favored by the Las Vegas judges.
Many boxing fans felt that the popular Canelo was given a draw only because of his fame and not because he deserved the draw. The stench from the controversial draw has followed Canelo to this day. That’s why it’s important for him to face Golovkin again than it is the other way around. It’s in Canelo and Golden Boy’s best interest to make the rematch with Golovkin to make the boxing fans believe in him again. Even if Canelo loses the fight to GGG, it’s still in his best interest to take it. The 2nd fight with Golovkin will show that Canelo doesn’t belong in the middleweight division. The things that Golovkin did against Canelo, the other top fighters in the 160 lb. division will be able to do as well. Canelo won’t get as much money facing them compared to against GGG.
”He [Golovkin] was just more disappointed for the fans and the sport of boxing,” said Loeffler. ”He thought than in a high profile event with some of the scores, it was a knock on the sport. That had a big effect on his career. Instead of having an undefeated and unblemished record with a high knockout percentage, he has a raw on his record. That made the rematch a lot more difficult to negotiate than had he won the fight, because he already had those terms agreed in the first fight. He still wants to prove that he’s the best. He wants to continue his winning streak,” said Loeffler.
If Golovkin can’t get the rematch with Canelo, he can still prove he’s the best by fighting Daniel Jacobs in a rematch, and then Jermall Charlo, Billy Joe Saunders and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Those are the best fighters in the middleweight division right now. Those are the guys that Golovkin needs to face whether he gets the second fight with Canelo or not.
“I think Canelo wants Vegas,” said a chuckling Loeffler in saying that Canelo wants the GGG rematch in Las Vegas, Nevada. “The focus would be to get the fight done. Once the fight is done, we’ll sit down with Eric. The Garden is very interested,” Loeffler said.
Las Vegas has been very good to Canelo, and he’s been good to them. Canelo avoided devastating loss to Golovkin in Vegas, and now it looks like he wants to go back. I don’t think the second will end up there, but it depends on whether Golovkin and Loeffler are willing to stand their ground in the negotiations or not. If they cave in to what Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions wants, then the fight will end up in Las Vegas and they’ll have to take their changes with the judges that are assigned to the fight. It would be bad for the sport of boxing if another controversial decision is turned in by the judges for the second fight. It wouldn’t be good for Canelo to gain a reputation for being given give decisions or draws. Besides the Golovkin fight, a lot of fans thought Canelo was gift wins over Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout. One judge even had Canelo’s fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. scored a draw.
