By Sean Jones: Promoter Tom Loeffler is slightly intrigued at the idea of Gennady Golovkin going up to 168 for a big fight that makes sense against someone like Callum Smith or Chris Eubank Jr. That said, Loeffler isn’t showing strong interest in making a fight between Golovkin and the 28-year-old Smith, who recently captured the World Boxing Super Series tournament on September 28 in stopping WBA Super World 168 lb champion George Groves in the 7th round.
Golovkin vs. Callum Smith would need to take place in the UK for it to sell, as it would be another Vanes Martirosyan type of fight in which the boxing public in the U.S wouldn’t be excited about. Smith is a good fighter, but he’s an unknown with the U. fans, and he’s fighting in a division that isn’t popular. Smith vs. Golovkin would be a big deal in the UK, but not in the U.S. As such, there’s no reason for Golovkin to move up to 168. If Smith had the popularity of former super middleweight Carl Froch or Joe Calzaghe in the UK, then it would be a compelling fight for GGG. Smith isn’t a star in his own country. He’s a good fighter, but he hasn’t won over a lot of boxing fans the way Froch and Calzaghe did. Golovkin would be better off facing Chris Eubank Jr. than he would Smith.
Smith’s places him at the top of the super middleweight division in the eyes of the boxing fans. Nonetheless, he’s still not a household name in the U.S, so its not a fight that will do much for GGG right now in the U.S in terms of attracting the boxing fans in the U.S into wanting to see him fight the 6’3″ Smith. Golovkin would be making Smith’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport a very happy man if he were to agree to fight Smith, but the fight wouldn’t do much offer GGG.
Loeffler’s major focus is in getting a third fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez. Golovkin lost to Canelo in their rematch last month on September 15, and they’re not happy about it, believing it was a bad decision in Las Vegas. Loeffler understands that Golovkin can make more money fighting Alvarez in a trilogy fight rather than facing someone else. Loeffler isn’t sure that a third fight with Canelo will happen, because of him signing with DAZN, which makes things a little uncertain with the pay structure. DAZN doesn’t have PPV as of yet, and it’s unknown if it will.
“I know the fans aren’t satisfied,” Loeffler said to Behind The Ropes about Gennady’s controversial loss to Canelo last month on September 15. “I’m in regular contact with Eric Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions. We’ll see if there’s a way to make the fight happen. Canelo will probably take one or two fights now. We’ll see if it makes sense to make a third fight. I still think it’s one of the biggest fights in the sport. With the DAZN deal, I’m not sure how it works out financially,” Loeffler said.
It’s going to be next to impossible for Golovkin and Canelo to structure a deal for a trilogy fight. Everything is working against a third fight btween Canelo and Golovkin from taking place. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya is saying that he has a set price that he’s willing to give Golovkin for a third fight, and if he doesn’t like it, then he can go in another direction. De La Hoya is sounding like he expects Canelo to get a better purse split than his previous fight against GGG due to his win over him last September. It doesn’t matter to De La Hoya that his win over GGG was a controversial one. The only thing that De La Hoy cares about is that Canelo won the fight period.
The way that De La Hoya sounds like he’s not concerned if the Canelo-GGG trilogy fight gets made or not, it suggests that he’s not too concerned with it not happening. What will likely cause De La Hoya to change his tune is when Canelo starts getting beaten by the top middleweights like Demetrius Andrade, Jermall Charlo and Daniel Jacobs. Those guys are all huge, and much bigger than the tiny 5’8″ Canelo. They’ll capable of using their long reach to jab Canelo from the outside the way that GGG did in his first fight with Alvarez last year.
Glovkin chose to slug a lot more in the rematch last month, and that allowed the counter-punching Canelo to have a lot of opportunities to land counter shots. Canelo wouldn’t have been able to land those shots if GGG had boxed him from the outside like he did last year. Golovkin was slow in making adjustments in the rematch and that made the fight tougher than it would have been had GGG used his five inch reach advantage over the shorter-armed Canelo. The top middleweights in the division are taller than GGG and have a longer reach. They could give Canelo fits if they stay on the outside and box him.
“That was the reason to fight Billy Joe Saunders,” Loeffler said about a fight between GGG and Saunders no longer being a big deal now that Saunders has vacated his WBO middleweight title after testing positive for the banned drug oxilofrine. “The reason to fight him was to try and win the fourth or fifth title. Not as much [interest now]. There are bigger fights in the States. A fight against Billy Joe could be possible if it makes sense. Callum Smith is doing well now. Eubank Jr. is fighting James Degale. There’s a lot of popular UK fighters.Coming back to the UK would be interesting for Gennady. I think Callum Smith is a great fighter. That could be a great match-up for GGG. For a fight like that, we always said he wants to move up for the right fight. Callum Smith makes sense. Unless there’s a big fight at 168 that makes sense…Canelo moving up to 168 to fight Rocky fielding doesn’t do that much moving the needle, but that’s the fight he chose. If GGG moves up to 168, it’ll be for a sizable fight. Any marketable fight that makes sense at 168, otherwise he’ll stay at 160, which is a hot division. . He still makes 160 really easy,” Loeffler said.
A third fight between Canelo and Golovkin has a much better chance of happening than a GGG vs. Smith match. The problem is there’s not much of an upside for Golovkin to fight the lanky Callum Smith, as the fans aren’t going to get excited. Smith’s promoter Eddie Hearn will probably be all over this news about Loeffler being intrigued by the idea of Smith and GGG fighting, but it’s still unlikely to happen.
