By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya once again has taken to Twitter to remind Gennady Golovkin that Saul Canelo Alvarez is “moving on”, and that the only way the rematch can take place between the two stars on September 15 is if GGG accepts the original agreed upon pure split for the cancelled May 5th rematch.
That split was 65-35 in Canelo’s favor. It’s a slight bump up for GGG from the 70-30 purse split for the first Canelo-GGG fight on September 16, 2017 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Golovkin has now rejected the 65/35 purse split, saying that he wants a 50-50 EQUAL split of the money. The reason for that is Golovkin feels that as the IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion, he deserves an equal split against the challenger Canelo instead of taking less, which he feels is absolutely unfair.
”Canelo is moving on, the only possible way he fights GGGBoxing in September is on same terms we agreed on after the first fight. #danieljacobs #charlo #sounders,” De La Hoya said on his Twitter.
De La Hoya didn’t mention Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan or David Lemieux. I wonder if Golden Boy Promotions has removed those two names from the list of potential candidates for Canelo to fight on September 15. It would be good news if they did, because there are not too many boxing fans that want to see Canelo fight Lemieux or O’Sullivan. It’ll be open season on Canelo and Golden Boy if they select O’Sullivan or Lemieux as the opponent for the Mexican star to fight in September on HBO PPV.
Fans don’t like to have to pay to watch poor mismatches on PPV, which is what they would be stuck with if Canelo faces O’Sullivan or Lemieux in his next fight. Those are not PPV worthy opponents for Canelo to be fighting at this stage in his career. It’s possible as well that maybe De La Hoya and Golden Boy president Eric Gomez aren’t on the same page with one another, because he named Lemieux and O’Sullivan as possible opponents for Canelo. If he only had 3 weeks for Golden Boy to choose an opponent, then it wouldn’t be so bad, but the fact is, they have four months before Canelo’s next fight in September. Golden Boy can do much better than Lemieux or O’Sullivan for Canelo’s next fight.
It doesn’t like GGG is going to agree to the 65/35 split that De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez are offering to him. If Golden Boy and Canelo are going to be “moving on,” as De La Hoya says they are, then maybe they should do that already and stop reminding the boxing fans about it.
Golovkin has these things going for him in asking for a 50-5 deal:
• IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight titles. GGG is the champion, and is considered the best fighter in the 160lb division. Canelo is the challenger, and possibly not even the third best fighter in the weight class. Jermall Charlo, Danny Jacobs and Billy Joe Saunders are all rated higher than Canelo in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans.
• GGG is seen as the winner of the fight against Canelo last September at the T-Mobile Arena
• Canelo was popped on two drug tests for clenbuterol
• Golovkin will lose his IBF middleweight title if he fights Canelo on September 15. Because of that sacrifice, along with the other items on this list, Golovkin wants a 50-50 deal
It sounds like De La Hoya is holding is trying to use Canelo’s A-side status as a tool to get GGG to agree to a purse split (65-35) that is well below what he feels he deserves for the rematch. Golovkin isn’t the one that tested positive for clenbuterol x 2 in February. That was Canelo, and he pulled out of their May 5 fight, and he’s now suspended until August 17 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
For some reason, De La Hoya believes WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders’ last name is spelled, ‘S-O-U-N-D-E-R-S’ instead of ‘Saunders. De La Hoya is even pronouncing his name as “Sounders.” Maybe someone told De La Hoya that was his name.
Canelo and Golovkin really do need each other for them to make the most possible money. The sooner Golden Boy realizes that the better. Even with Golden Boy giving Golovkin 50 percent of the revenue for the fight. Canelo will still walk away with potentially $35 million if the fight generates $70 million like last time the two middleweight stars fought each other last September. Canelo won’t get the $50 million that he got last time he fought GGG, but the $35 million is still a heck of a lot more than he’ll get for fighting Daniel Jacobs, Billy Joe Saunders or Jermall Charlo. Those guys aren’t big enough names for Canelo to rake in the same kind of dough as the first Canelo-GGG fight.
It’s a good sign that De La Hoya keeps mentioning Charlo along with Jacobs and Saunders as being in the running for the 27-year-old Canelo’s September fight. Charlo, 27, is obviously the most talented of those three potential opponents for Canelo. However, Charlo is also the least likely to get the fight because of how good he is. Charlo is capable of doing the same thing to Canelo that Golovkin can. Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs) wouldn’t start slow against Canelo the way that Golovkin did, and he wouldn’t come into the fight with some crazy idea of standing on the outside and jabbing all night long. Charlo would realize that he’s not the A-side and that he’s fighting a very popular in Canelo in Las Vegas. Charlo would recognize what he’s up against in fighting an A-side fighter in Las Vegas, where he’s pretty much unbeatable when it comes to the scoring of his fights. I can’t see Charlo having any chance of being picked out for Canelo to fight because he would have too much of a chance of leaving him on the canvas in the same way he did his last opponent Hugo Centeno Jr. last April.
The 65/35 split that De La Hoya and Golden Boy are trying to get Golovkin to accept could be their way of getting out of the fight. By offering him so little money compared to Canelo, might be doing it knowing that he’ll reject the offer. Once he does that, then Golden Boy and Canelo can tell the public, ‘See, GGG turned down our generous offer. What are we supposed to do when he doesn’t accept the deal? So now we’re going to fight O’Sullivan.’ With Canelo coming off of a one-year layoff, entirely due to his own fault, he might not want to take on a tough opponent like Golovkin for his September 15 fight. If all Golden Boy is offering is close to the same deal as the first fight, then that’s a sign that they don’t really like the fight enough to give Golovkin a bigger split. Golovkin received a 70-30 split for the first fight and the offer for the May 5 fight was 65-35. It looks to me like Golden Boy doesn’t want the rematch enough to give Golovkin a bigger split. Canelo obviously is aware of the money split Golovkin is being offered. If he wanted he fight with GGG enough, he would make sure he was given a fair 50-50 split so he could get him back inside the ring and prove that he can beat him.
If Golovkin is concerned about whether Canelo is doping or not, then he’s better off waiting until 2019 to fight him, because the Mexican only recently signed up for VADA testing after the Nevada State Athletic Commission stopped testing him on April 3. There was some time where Canelo wasn’t being tested. If Golovkin worried about whether Canelo was cycling with clenbuterol during the time that he wasn’t be tested, then he should wait until 2019 to fight him, because he’s now signed with VADA and will be tested on a random basis.