By Sean Jones: Former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin has received an offer from DAZN for him to sign with their streaming service, according to ESPN. The offer is said to be the best one yet for the 36-year-old Kazakhstan fighter, who has previously met with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) officials and received an offer from ESPN/Top Rank. Golovkin is expected to receive an offer from PBC.
Signing with DAZN puts GGG on crash course for a third fight with Canelo Alvarez. However, before he gets that fight, he likely would need to face Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom stable middleweights. That might not be the best thing for GGG right now. He needs some tune-up fights to get back to his winning ways after his two controversial fights against Canelo. Hearn has a couple of boxer/punchers in his Matchroom Boxing USA stable in Demetrius Andrade and Daniel Jacobs, and those guys would make GGG chase them around the ring. It’s not a good deal for GGG to fight runners at this point.
The biggest reason for Golovkin to sign with DAZN would be for him to get a third and possibly a fourth fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez, who recently beat him by a controversial 12 round majority decision in their rematch on September 15 on HBO PPV in Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s the biggest money fight for Golovkin in the sport. If GGG wants the biggest payday available, then signing with DAZN would help his chances of landing a third fight with Canelo. It wouldn’t guarantee it though.
It would still be up to Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions whether they like the idea of fighting GGG a third time. Alvarez is taking a fight this month against WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding on December 15 on DAZN at Madison Square Garden in New York. Canelo, 28, says he’s going to be moving back down to 160 after that fight to face the best in the division, and defend his three middleweight titles. Canelo would still only have a small amount of options for interesting fights in the division besides GGG. That’s still easily the best fight for Canelo at middleweight. If Golovkin signs with ESPN/Top Rank or Premier Boxing Champions, he wouldn’t have a big name to fight. With PBC, GGG would be expected to fight the Charlo brothers and Jarrett Hurd. Those would be tough fights for GGG and without a lot of money. Those would still be PPV worthy fights. Signing with DAZN, would mean that Golovkin would need to fight Daniel Jacobs, Demetrius Andrade and Canelo Alvarez. There’s always a chance that Jacobs or Andrade would beat GGG if they were able to out-box him and keep from getting hit with anything. Unless the rematch Canelo happens immediately, Golovkin would likely be expected to fight Jacobs or Andrade in early 2019 when he returns to the ring.
It might take a very good offer from DAZN to get Golovkin to sign with them, considering that his nemesis Saul Canelo Alvarez, the new IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion, recently received a huge 11-fight, 5-year, $365 million contract with DAZN. GGG likely won’t be interested in signing for considerably less than what Canelo received from DAZN. Golovkin and many boxing fans believe he deserved wins in his two fights with Canelo Alvarez, which were scored as 12 round draw in 2017 and a 12 round majority decision defeat for GGG in 2018. Both fights took place in the same city, Las Vegas, Nevada, and the same venue, the T-Mobile Arena. Under those circumstances, it would be a difficult thing potentially for Golovkin to agree to a contract from DAZN that was considerably less Canelo. Golovkin agreeing to a smaller contract might be seen as him agreeing with the results of his two fights with Canelo.
On Tuesday of this week, GGG met with DAZN executive chairman John Skipper and Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn. GGG was made an offer by DAZN at that time, according to ESPN.
During the meeting, Hearn gave GGG a plan for his next three fights, should he sign with DAZN. Hearn has two middleweights – Daniel Jacobs and Demetrius Andrade- signed with his Matchroom Boxing USA/DAZN stable, and he feels that one of them, IBF middleweight champion Jacobs, is good enough to beat GGG. However, Golovkin already defeated Jacobs last year by a 12 round unanimous decision. Jacobs has looked poor in his last three fights since then beating Luis Arias, Maciej Sulecki and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. The money Golovkin can make fighting Jacobs likely wouldn’t be anymore than if he were to fight other middleweights in the division. Jacobs is not a big name, and neither is Demetrius Andrade. If Golovkin sign with DAZN, it helps Hearn and his Matchroom Boxing USA promotional company, since it likely means that he’ll wind up facing all of his middleweights in his stable of fighters. That helps Hearn, but not Golovkin. Andrade and Jacobs are not popular, and they’re both defensive fighters that move a lot. GGG would likely need to chase them around the ring, and it could be ugly fights. Jacobs ran from Golovkin for much of their fight in 2017. It was not interesting fight to watch. Jacobs also skipped the second day International Boxing Federation mandated weigh-in on the morning of the fight.
“ESPN and DAZN are very interested in Gennady and in the running,” GGG’s prmooter Tom Loeffler said to ESPN.com. “Both have a big budget for GGG.”
If GGG signs with ESPN/Top Rank, he would be fighting guys like Ryota Murata and Rob Brant. It’s unclear whether Top Rank would attempt to get GGG to move up to super middleweight so that he could fight their fighters Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez and Jesse Hart. It would be a big size difference between GGG and those guys. Top Rank also has WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksander Gvozdyk signed with them. He would likely be much too big for GGG to fight, even if he dropped down to 168 to face him. The size difference would too much for Golovkin. It would be far better for GGG to spend the rest of his career fighting middleweights instead of putting himself at a disadvantage in facing super middleweights or light heavyweights.