Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin has decided that he’s willing to take less than 50 percent for a rematch against Saul Canelo Alvarez. Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) wants a 55-45 split for the Canelo fight, which is slightly above the 60-40 split that Golden Boy Promotions are offering him.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler points out that Canelo is still the A-side in the fight in getting 55 percent of the money. Golden Boy president Eric Gomez said he’ll float the idea of GGG getting an improved 55-45 split to Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya, and he’ll in turn speak to Canelo about it.
De La Hoya says they’ve already made an offer to Daniel Jacobs to fight Canelo for September. That’s a fight that De La Hoya wants, but the offer was not agreed on by Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn. It’s quite possible that Golden Boy gave an offer that was intentionally low to Jacobs, because they weren’t serious about signing him for the Canelo fight. If Golovkin is the guy that that Golden Boy has the serious interest in signing for Canelo’s September 15 fight, then making lowball offers to guys like Jacobs could be a way of getting GGG to come in at a lower price.
“He will come down to 55-45, which makes Canelo the A side,” Loeffler said to ESPN.com. ”It will be Canelo making 55 percent in a rematch against GGG, which will be much bigger than the first fight was for sure. The rematch with GGG is his biggest fight by far and Gennady’s biggest fight. That’s the fight we want,” Loeffler said.
Canelo can make a heck of a lot of money fighting GGG again, and gain a lot more attention and fame from the fight than facing Jacobs, who might beat him. Fighting Jacobs is a move that could end in disaster for Canelo, who at 5’8” is this era’s Miguel Cotto. Being short at middleweight is asking for trouble. We saw how Canelo’s lack of reach and size limited what he could do against GGG last September. If you throw Canelo in with the 6-foot Jacobs, it’s a total size mismatch.
Canelo needs Golovkin to regain the fame that he had before their fight. Canelo’s reputation has taken a major hit due to his controversial draw in their fight last September and his two positive tests for clenbuterol.
Loeffler is ignoring what De La Hoya has been saying about how the train has left the station as far as the Canelo-GGG negotiations. Loeffler says he’s working with Eric Gomez, not De La Hoya in the negotiations. He’s not taking De La Hoya serious with his talk of making the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight.
“I’m not negotiating with Oscar. I’m negotiating with Eric Gomez,” Loeffler said about Gomez. “I spoke to Eric [on Wednesday] and he’s going to go to Oscar and Canelo and see if they can get something done.”