By Sean Jones: Superstar Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin has been been offered a monstrous 2-fight deal with DAZN, which could see him around $45 million, with a third fight with Saul Canelo Alvarez taking place as part of that deal, according to RingTV. As part of the two-fight contract with DAZN, Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) would challenge Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing fighter Demetrius Andrade (27-0, 17 KOs) in May or June.
This is the tricky part. The World Boxing Organization has already ordered Andrade to face his mandatory challenger Billy Joe Saunders. The WBO will have to let Andrade fight Golovkin instead of Saunders. Will the WBO let that happen? If not, then Golovkin’s first fight of his two fight deal with DAZN will have to be against someone else. An easy money fight for GGG would be Golden Boy stable fighter David Lemieux. Hearn doesn’t have anyone else in his Matchroom stable that will be available to fight GGG in May or June, so it would have to come down to Golden Boy fighter Lemieux if the WBO won’t allow Andrade to bypass his mandatory challenger Saunders in order to face Golovkin next.
Golovkin and his wife have been looking at offers from DAZN, ESPN and Premier Boxing Champions. It’s now down to DAZN and PBC as far as which of the two signs Golovkin. The meeting between GGG and DAZN on Wednesday was to finalize a 2-fight, deal, which could give Golovkin a little over $40 million, according to RingTV. That deal wouldn’t be as huge as the 11-fight, 5-year, $365 million contract that Saul Canelo Alvarez recently signed with DAZN.
Golovkin will be turning 37 on April 8. Whether Golovkin’s age has anything to do with him being given a smaller offer from DAZN than the monstrous deal that Canelo signed is unclear. Canelo’s roughly $33 million per fight sounds like a nice deal. If Golovkin signs a 2-fight deal with DAZN for a little over $40 million, it would average a little over $20 million per fight. The question would come down to whether or not Canelo brings in more subscribers to DAZN than GGG for his fights against little known Rocky Fielding, Daniel Jacobs and whoever else he’s matched up in the future?
If GGG signs with PBC of a similar 2-fight deal as with DAZN, his first match is rumored to be a soft one. The second one would be a pay-per-view bout against World Boxing Council interim middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. This fight would have torch passing written all over it, as Charlo is one of the PBC’s rising stars. Charlo looked terrible in his last fight. The fans recently saw Jermall win a highly controversial 12 round unanimous decision over Matt Korobov on December 22 in New York. Golovkin would do well against Charlo, but the judging would obviously be a major concern there. If there’s similar judging as the Charlo-Korobov fight, then Golovkin might find himself losing another controversial decision.
Golovkin recently dealt with two very controversial fights against Saul Canelo Alvarez in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first fight against Canelo was a 12 round draw in 2017, a match in which most boxing fans had Golovkin easily winning. The second fight, which also took place the same venue in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena, saw Canelo winning a controversial 12 round majority decision. Most boxing fans had Golovkin winning that one too. A lot of fans also felt that match could have been scored a draw.
Right now, Golovkin needs to be able to fight someone in a neutral venue where he won’t need to worry about the judging. If GGG is confident that he can KO Charlo, then he would be fine. It’s unclear whether the boxing public in the U.S would be interested in ordering GGG vs. Charlo on PPV. Charlo isn’t a super popular fighter yet, and the American boxing fans just saw him win a controversial decision over Korobov. It’s obviously not a good time for Golovkin to be fighting a guy that has a tainted victory. If anything, Charlo needs to be fighting Korobov again to prove that he can beat him, because the boxing public thinks he lost that fight. As such, there’s no upside in Golovkin fighting Charlo when he was already beaten by Korobov.
If the WBO insists on that happening next, then there won’t be a Golovkin vs. Andrade fight in May or June. DAZN and Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn will need to find someone else for Golovkin to fight in May or June. The second question is what happens if Andrade beats Golovkin? Andrade is a tall southpaw, who runs around the ring to avoid pressure fighters. Andrade boxes, and he’s not going to stand and fight Golovkin.
Andrade was hurt several times by the light-hitting 5’8″ Artur Akavov in his last fight on January 18. Andrade won by a 12th round knockout, but it strange stoppage where the referee pulled the plug on the fight despite the Russian not being hurt. Additionally, the fight was ugly to watch due to all the movement from Andrade. He was literally running from Akavov most of the fight. If Golovkin has to fight Andrade to get to the Canelo fight, it might not be worth it Golovkin had to chase Canelo around the ring in their first fight, and the judges gave the Mexican star a draw out of it. You can only imagine what kind of scoring would be involved in a fight between GGG and Andrade, especially if the fight takes place on the East Coast of the U.S. If you’re GGG, you’re not going to want to have to beat a runner like Andrade in order to get a third fight with Canelo. That’s not a good deal for Golovkin.
Although Golovkin will still likely KO Andrade, it would be a track meet where he would need to chase the tall 6’1″ southpaw around the ring for the entire fight the way Akavov was and it would be a race against time. It might not be worth it for Golovkin, especially if he has to absolutely beat Andrade in order to get to the trilogy fight with Canelo. To be required to face Andrade to get to the Canelo fight is a horrible deal, because there’s too much of a chance that the fight winds up with a controversial decision. The 2008 U.S Olympian Andrade has already had controversy from his fights with Akavov and Jack Culcay. There’s little doubt that if Golovkin were to fight Andrade, the fight would take place in the East Coast, likely in New York. That means the boxing fans that come to the fight would very likely be Andrade’s fans, since he’s from Providence, Rhode Island. It would be a home fight for Andrade.
If Golovkin signs with DAZN, it could still be tricky when it comes to his trilogy fight with Canelo. If the fight takes place where Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo wants it, then GGG will probably need to face him in Las Vegas again, and be in the same situation he was in his two previous fights against the Mexican star when it comes to the judging. Golovkin found out that he couldn’t win a decision over Canelo when fighting him in his home turf. Unless it’s part of the contract with DAZN that a third fight with Canelo take place in a neutral venue, then Golovkin could up with another controversial fight. Unless GGG beats Andrade to win the WBO strap, which could prove to be difficult given the likely location of their fight, he wouldn’t be in a position to negotiate where a third fight with Canelo will take place. That obviously means that if Canelo and Golden Boy wants the trilogy fight with GGG to take place in Las Vegas, like the first two matches, then that’s exactly where it will be. That’s a great deal for Canelo, but a terrible one for Golovkin. GGG could be negotiating himself into another loss to Canelo if he doesn’t have the location of their third fight as part of his 2-fight deal with DAZN. It would be better for Golovkin to be able to fight someone like WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion Rob Brant for his title rather than to have to face Andrade for the WBO belt on the East Coast, and have to deal with the running from him and potentially the judging.
As long as Golovkin recognizes what he’s going to be up against in signing a 2-fight deal that could result in him dealing with controversy in both of his fights against Andrade and Canelo, then it might be worth it for him to sign with DAZN. But it’s not like his deal with PBC won’t potentially see him in a situation where he could wind up on the short end of the stick in fighting their star Jermall Charlo. Korobov found out the hard way how difficult it is to get a decision against Charlo, and he was beating him to the punch all night long. Can Golovkin do a better job than Korobov did against Charlo? Maybe not. Golovkin might need to knock Charlo out in order to win. The two of them wouldn’t be a big PPV bout, since Andrade is not a big name. The fans that know of Andrade will remember his controversial decision over Korobov, and they won’t likely won’t want to see GGG fighting a guy that should have a loss on his record instead of a win from that fight. It’s not a good deal for Golovkin. Charlo has unfinished business with Korobov still that he needs to clear up.