By Scott Gilfoid: Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan says he’ll be fighting on the undercard of the rematch between Gennady Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez on September 15, and that he’s supposedly in line to fight the winner of that fight. At least that’s what the 33-year-old O’Sullivan is saying. O’Sullivan (28-2, 20 KOs) says he still has five fights on his contract with Golden Boy Promotions.
O’Sullivan had the chance to fight Golovkin on May 5 as a short term replacement opponent, but he chose not to take the fight when it was moved from HBO pay-per-view to regular HBO. The money was less for O’Sullivan. However, the only reason Team Golovkin was interested in O’Sullivan is because Canelo pulled out of the fight on three weeks’ notice and he didn’t have any options for fights. O’Sullivan wouldn’t have brought in any boxing fans though to the StubHub because only the hardcore boxing fans know of him in the U.S, and he’s not well thought of.
”I’ve been promised a spot on the GGG-Canelo undercard before being in line to face the winner,” O’Sullivan said to skysports.com.
Golovkin isn’t likely going to waste another fight against a low level opponent, so it’s highly unlikely he’ll give O’Sullivan a world title shot. The boxing public would rebel big time if Golovkin’s next fight after the Canelo rematch is against O’Sullivan. The U.S fans will put up with a fight between Golovkin and WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, but they won’t tolerate another mismatch against a fringe contender like O’Sullivan. GGG’s last fight was against Vanes Martirosyan last May , and that was a horrible one that lasted just two rounds. When you remove Canelo from the equation, the fighters that the fan want to see Golovkin face is Jermall Charlo, Danny Jacobs and Demetrius Andrade.
U.S fans have scant interest in seeing Golovkin destroy Saunders, and there is absolutely no interest from people in a fight involving Saunders against GGG or Canelo. O’Sullivan is the type of opponent that Canelo and Saunders might be interested in if they were coming off of a bad knockout loss. If they need a confidence booster, then O’Sullivan is perfect for that. But as far as O’Sullivan being an opponent that draws interest, he’s useless for that purpose. He would be the equivalent of fan repellant to drive away the fans rather than drawing their interest.
“I have a five-fight contract with Golden Boy, with three still remaining, and they promised me, after my last fight, that I would be on this September undercard before being in line to face the winner,” O’Sullivan said.
O’Sullivan recently defeated welterweight Berlin Abreu by a 4th round knockout last month on May 4th on the undercard of super featherweight contender Ryan Garcia’s last fight at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. It’s unclear why Golden Boy matched O’Sullivan against a welterweight instead of someone from his own weight class at middleweight.