By Sean Jones: Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions believes that the Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin trilogy match can take place without boxing fans present if need be. Even though fighting without fans could result in the Canelo-GGG 3 mega-clash losing up to $25 million, De La Hoya still believes the fight could take place without fans.
The gate for the Canelo vs. GGG II fight in September 2018 pulled in $23,473,500. That was two years ago, and you’ve got to figure that the third match could bring in even more.
Canelo (53-1-2 36 KOs) and Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) have an agreement to fight later this year in September, but it’s not looking good. Golovkin’s trainer Johnathon Banks says GGG wants to fight his IBF mandatory Kamil Sceremeta instead, and then take a warm-up. In other words, Golovkin would be taking TWO tune-up fights. That would take the Canelo trilogy match into 2021, which isn’t a good idea given the 38-year-old Golovkin advanced age. He’ll be turning 39 in April 2021.
De La Hoya: Canelo-Golovkin has to be nextÂ
“Safety is first,” said De La Hoya to Yahoo Sports News when asked about when he plans on staging the third Canelo vs. Gennadiy Golovkin fight. “We still have to figure out how to make this work because Canelo is the biggest attraction in boxing.
“Canelo-GGG has to happen. DAZN wants it, we want it [Golden Boy], and Canelo wants it, and GGG wants it. It has to happen. That has to be the first or next biggest major mega-fight for boxing. That’s how boxing makes a statement, do you know what I’m saying?” said De La Hoya
It will be excellent for the sport if Canelo vs. GGG 3 is the first mega-clash out of the gates in 2020 when boxing is given the green light to resume. Golovkin will need to scrape his title defense against little known Kamil Szeremeta if he wants that to happen.
The fans don’t care about Golovkin needing to make a title defense of his IBF belt, which isn’t due, and Canelo won’t reject a fight against him if he vacates the belt. If GGG and Canelo don’t fight this year, then the sport will miss out on a great battle to bring back the fans.
You’ve got to believe that fans will be so desperate to watch a quality boxing event by that point, they would be eager to watch the Canelo vs. Golovkin 3 fight in huge numbers. Golovkin needs to think about losing the IBF title if it means that he could miss out on facing Canelo this year.
Canelo vs. GGG can take place without fans present
“I believe we can do it without fans, but Canelo is a superstar. He’s going to want to have a packed arena,” said De La Hoya said on the possibility of Canelo fighting Golovkin without fans.
“We have to put our heads together and minds together to think this out because there’s a lot of money involved with that gate. Imagine a fight of that magnitude with no fans. We’ve never lived this in our lives, so we have to figure this out,” said De La Hoya.
There’s nothing to figure out. Golden Boy Promotions WON’T be able to stage a fight between Canelo and Golovkin without fans being present because it’s too big of a battle to lose $25 million. Ideally, the U.S government and Commission will allow fans back into boxing events by October or November of this year.
If not, then Canelo-GGG 3 will need to wait until 2021 or later before it can take place. Those to fighters probably aren’t going to want to lose out on that big of a gate.
Canelo and Golovkin both have massive contracts with DAZN, so perhaps they won’t mind losing out on extra gate money for them to stage their fight in 2020. Where there could be a HUGE problem is if the global pandemic stretches into 2021 and 2022 without letup.
The last big pandemic in 1918 lasted three years before it finally went away. The 2009 pandemic had a duration of close to two years. These things don’t go away quickly, so Canelo and Golovkin might not be any better off trying to wait out the current pandemic. They could be waiting for a long, long time.
De La Hoya: It’s business with Canelo
“It’s all business,” said De La Hoya when asked about his relationship with Canelo. “In all these years inside and outside the ring in boxing, I’ve learned it’s all business. In boxing, there’s no loyalty, and it’s sad, but that’s what I’ve lived. Canelo is a great fighter, and I consider him my friend, but it’s business. That’s it,” said De La Hoya.
It’s not surprising that it’s all business between Canelo and De La Hoya, but that’s par for the course. When money is involved, it changes things. If De La Hoya were just a friend and no business attached to it, then it would be a different situation.
