By Sean Jones: Tom Loeffler says that he’s still in negotiations with Eric Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions to put together the rematch between unbeaten middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez for September. That fight is still very much a priority for Loeffler and Triple G. Loeffler says Golovkin deserves a better deal than the 65/35 split for the rematch after Canelo testing positive twice for clenbuterol and then pulling out of their May 5 rematch.
Unfortunately, Loeffler does not have a lot of time to negotiate with Golden Boy Promotions for the rematch with the suspended Canelo Alvarez, who was dealt a huge career blow by the Nevada State Athletic Commission in receiving a 6-month suspension after being popped twice for clenbuterol. Golovkin has his IBF mandatory due on August 3 against Sergey Derevyanchenko.
If GGG doesn’t take that fight, he’s going to be stripped of his IBF strap. Getting a big payday against Canelo will help cushion the blow for GGG if the International Boxing Federation strips him of his 160lb title. I really don’t think it matters at this point what the IBF does, to be honest. Loeffler makes it quite clear that he’s been trying to setup a fight between GGG and WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders for the last 3 years with no lucky.
Saunders prices himself out each time. Loeffler believes that it’ll continue to be the case. As such, there’s really no point in Golovkin holding onto all his tiles because he’s not going to be able to unify the division anyway unless he gives Saunders everything he wants to make the fight. The thing is, Golovkin vs. Saunders doesn’t sell in the U.S. There’s no interest in that fight other than from true hardcore boxing fans. Golovkin is better off giving up his IBF and WBC belts, and instead just keeping his WBA title.
The reason the WBA belt is the most important is because Ryota Murata is the ‘regular’ World Boxing Association champion, and Golovkin can make a ton of money fighting him later this year. In fact, that’s a fight that Loeffler believes can happen in December. If Golovkin gives up his IBF title, then he doesn’t have to worry about fighting no-name Derevyanchenko. There’s no money in that fight for Golovkin. If Golovkin vacates his WBC title, then he doesn’t have to defend against Jermall Charlo, who is in the same boat as Derevyanchenko in terms of his popularity or lack thereof.
What Loeffler doesn’t say is why he and GGG ever agreed to the “unfair purse split” of 65-35 for the rematch with the 27-year-old Canelo in the first place. That was a blow-it move on their part to give Canelo such a lopsided purse split, and it was just as bad to agree to the 70-30 purse split for the first fight. Now that Canelo has properly been spoiled by Team GGG, I don’t think there’s any way on earth for Loeffler to get the Mexican star or his promoters at Golden Boy to agree to the 50-50 split that they’re asking for.
“GGG originally agreed to an unfair purse split for the rematch,” Loeffler said to RingTV.com. “After Canelo tested positive twice and got suspended, GGG asked for a better split. He wants, and deserves, more than 35%. But he wants the fight.”
The last part of Loeffler’s statement about how “he [Golovkin] wants the fight” suggests that Golovkin may be willing to lower his asking price from less than a 50 percent deal. Just how much lower is unknown. The way that Golovkin and Loeffler negotiated for the first fight and for the May 5 rematch, I think it would be very likely if Team GGG drops down from 50% to 40%, which I think they’ll get. 60-40 is still a horrible deal, but Golovkin’s team hasn’t been the toughest when it comes to their negotiating. Golden Boy will likely be more than happy to accept a lopsided 60-40 deal. Loeffler should have been tough from the jump and asked for a 55-45 split in the first fight and then nothing short of 50-50 for the rematch, but it takes a tough negotiator with steely nerves to negotiate like that, and we didn’t see that from Team GGG.
Golovkin is in the right to ask for a bigger slice of the financial pie for the Canelo rematch.
The hardcore boxing fans that care about records will complain that Golovkin needs Canelo because he must beat him to win his Ring Magazine title. I don’t know if that’s something that really matters. The average fan doesn’t know anything about all the different belts. They just want to know who the best fighter is in the 160lb weight class, and Golovkin obviously proved that he was better than Canelo last time but not with the scoring from the Las Vegas judges. Two of them came up with scores that seemed to reflect scoring from a different fight entirely than the one that took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“I’m still in discussions with HBO and with Eric Gomez,” Loeffler said. “Whatever posturing there is from both sides right now, this is still the biggest fight for HBO, for Canelo and GGG, and for boxing.”
Yeah, Canelo vs. GGG II is the biggest fight in boxing and definitely the biggest fight on HBO. The only question is will Canelo and Golden Boy give Golovkin the fair percentage split that he’s asking for? Obviously the same financial terms can’t be used for the May 5th rematch because Canelo tested positive x 2 for clenbuterol and then pulled out of the fight, costing GGG millions. It’s not just that though. It’s also the taint that comes with a person that is popped for PEDs. They’re not looked at in the same way. Golovkin didn’t do anything to devalue his rematch with Canelo. That was done by Canelo, who made the mistake of eating tainted meat in Mexico. It doesn’t matter that Canelo says he ate the meat. He’s now a tainted person in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. If Canelo didn’t test positive, he’d only have to deal with angry boxing fans who felt that he was given a gift draw on September 16 in his fight with GGG last year. Testing positive for PEDs is far worse in my view. If you look at Major League Baseball; when a homerun hitter tests positive for PEDs, a lot of the baseball fans are angry at the player. They distrust them afterwards, and are suspicious when they’re still playing well. Canelo is going to have a lot of boxing fans distrusting him now. Since Golovkin is going to be competing with Canelo, he’ll be affected if the fans choose not to purchase his rematch. Even though Golovkin didn’t do anything wrong, he’s potentially going to feel the pain too if the boxing fans elect not to pay to see his rematch because of Canelo. Because of all that, Golovkin deserves a fair split against Canelo at 50-50. Since Canelo tested positive and pulled out of the fight, GGG is in the position to ask for a 50-50 deal now.
Canelo’s meat excuse is a plausible one. It could happen, but it was irresponsible for Canelo to put himself in the position in the first place by going out and eating meat at a restaurant. Canelo’s positive tests for clenbuterol could hurt the PPV numbers for the rematch.
It’s fun to think about how the Canelo vs. Golovkin II rematch will be like if it does take place, but I don’t know if it will at this point. If it does take place, it’s likely going to see Golovkin being much more aggressive than he was in the first fight. That means we’ll see GGG cutting off the ring faster, not letting Canelo run to his left unmolested like last time. Golovkin will be more willing to take shots in order to deliver his own, because he found out that Canelo is not a huge puncher, especially when he gets tired like he was from rounds 3 to 12. Golovkin knows now that the judges are probably not going to give him the decision, so he’s going to be looking to knock Canelo out cold on September 15. Golovkin will be throwing with major power this time instead of just being contest to jab all night long.
Golovkin can’t make that foolish mistake again. If Golovkin thinks he can beat a superstar like Canelo by a decision, he’s deluded. It doesn’t happen. Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout and GGG all failed in trying to win a decision against Canelo. They all appeared to beat Canelo, and they failed to get the win. Golovkin should have researched Canelo’s past fights, because if he had, he would have realized that he wasn’t going to win a decision. Golovkin wouldn’t have wasted time jabbing and instead he would have been swinging for the fences looking to KO Canelo with every blow. Golovkin will be the fighter we saw in his recent match against Vanes Martirosyan when/if he faces Canelo on September 15. In that case, Canelo stands no chance of winning, especially if he’s smaller and weaker than he was last time.