NEW YORK ? Gennady Golovkin displayed patience as he picked apart David Lemieux on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
ASSOCIATED PRESS KO artist Gennady Golovkin is due for a major payday, and it could come soon after Saturday night’s win.
After another dominant win, the undefeated middleweight champion must exhibit even more patience outside the ring while waiting to learn if he’ll get the fight he really wants in 2016. Golovkin hopes the Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez winner will fight him, but that’s entirely dependent on what occurs when Puerto Rico’s Cotto and Mexico’s Alvarez meet in a highly anticipated showdown Nov. 21 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
The WBC has mandated that the Cotto-Alvarez winner must face Golovkin, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee Cotto, the WBC’s middleweight champion, or Alvarez will embrace a fight against the dangerous knockout artist from Kazakhstan.
Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) will turn 35 next week and could retire after earning an eight-figure purse for fighting Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs). Alvarez, 25, is more likely to box Golovkin because, like Golovkin, he has an exclusive television deal with HBO Sports and is a younger, fresher fighter than Cotto.
“They’re two great champions,” Golovkin, 33, said at a post-fight news conference early Sunday morning. “Miguel, I respect. And Canelo, right now he’s a superstar, too. [Whoever] wins, I’m ready.”
Whatever happens following Cotto-Alvarez, Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) has more negotiating power than ever after recording his 21st consecutive knockout, an eighth-round stoppage of Montreal’s Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs).
Star fighters who’ve dismissed the risk of fighting Golovkin because it wouldn’t have been worth the reward can no longer use such excuses.
The card headlined by Golovkin-Lemieux drew a capacity crowd of 20,548 to the Garden and proved Golovkin is a star. Lemieux made a $1.5 million purse for boxing Golovkin, whose guarantee was $2 million.
If Golovkin’s debut as a pay-per-view headliner also was a success, he’ll assume an even stronger position. The number of buys the Golovkin-Lemieux show drew won’t be available until later this week at the earliest, but Golovkin’s handlers already are pleased with the hard-hitting Golovkin’s growth as an attraction.
“I think this type of performance, from a marketing standpoint and a financial standpoint, opens up a lot of doors,” said Tom Loeffler, managing director for K2 Promotions, which represents Golovkin. “[Now] we can get those types of offers and get the champions in the ring that we weren’t able to get in the previous years.”
Should the Cotto-Alvarez winner head in a different direction, Golovkin is willing to face other middleweight titleholders.
He owns the interim WBC, WBA “super” and IBF 160-pound championships. Golovkin would love to add the WBO title and Cotto’s WBC crown to his collection.
England’s Andy Lee (34-2-1, 24 KOs) is scheduled to defend his WBO championship against England’s Billy Joe Saunders (22-0, 12 KOs) on Dec. 19 in Manchester, England. Golovkin is open as well to fighting the winner of a bout between WBA “world” champion Daniel Jacobs (30-1, 27 KOs) and Peter Quillin (32-0-1, 23 KOs), scheduled for Dec. 5 at Barclays Center.
“My goal,” Golovkin said, “is [to have] all the belts in the middleweight division.”
His success in the ring and at the gate notwithstanding, facing the Cotto-Alvarez winner is much more appealing because Golovkin still hasn’t fought a star that could help maximize his earning potential.
“The priority is to see who’s the winner Nov. 21,” Loeffler said. “Usually, I’m already planning his next fight.”
Twitter: @Idecboxing
