It?s easy to tell that Gennady Golovkin has a fight coming up, because his promoter is talking about gathering up all the title belts and all the fighters who won?t fight him. And Oscar De La Hoya, the promoter of Canelo Alvarez, the most prominent of those who aren?t interested in fighting Golovkin, is talking about the need for the fight to marinate.
Golovkin is a mega-talent, and hugely popular among the boxing crowd. He?s treated like royalty by the fan base whenever he appears at a fight card.
The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., has already sold more than 14,000 tickets for Golovkin?s nondescript middleweight title defense Saturday against Dominic Wade, and promoter Tom Loeffler expects a sellout of more than 16,000.
And the bout should do strong ratings on HBO, even though it will face heavy competition that includes NBA and NHL playoff games and a UFC pay-per-view card headlined by Jon Jones.
In his world, Golovkin is a king.
But this is where the story begins to wear thin. Golovkin is fighting Wade only because De La Hoya opted not to pit him against Alvarez, who in November defeated Miguel Cotto to win the WBC middleweight belt.
De La Hoya?s Twitter profile includes one short sentence: Best vs. Best. And there is little dispute among anyone that the world?s two best middleweights are, far and away, Golovkin and Alvarez.
But on May 7, Alvarez will defend his belt in Las Vegas on HBO pay-per-view against Amir Khan, a welterweight who has had only four of his 34 fights above 140 pounds and none above 147.
It?s a good fight, as Khan is fast and a good boxer, but it?s not THE FIGHT, which Alvarez-Golovkin would be.
Even if Alvarez defeats Khan as expected next month, it?s looking increasingly as if Alvarez-Golovkin won?t happen in the fall, either.
On a conference call with Alvarez this week, De La Hoya used the scariest word in the book if you?re a boxing fan who actually wants to see the best fight the best, like Alvarez against Golovkin: Marinate.
Asked about the possibility of the bout, De La Hoya spun platitudes and talked about making it the biggest fight of all-time.
?That?s a fight that as a promoter, it?s a fight that I want to see, that the world wants to see,? De La Hoya said. ?But as a promoter, I want it to be the biggest event in the history of this sport to attract fans and to bring back the fans that we lost when people witnessed Manny Pacquiao versus [Floyd] Mayweather.
?So my question every single day is, how can I accomplish that? And in order to accomplish that, there?s a famous saying in boxing that one certain promoter once said, and you know what it is.?
The word is marinate and the promoter De La Hoya spoke of was Top Rank?s Bob Arum.
But what he didn?t say was this: The fight that Arum said needed to marinate was a super featherweight match between Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa.
That fight never happened. Both fighters lost and went in different directions.
So Golovkin will have to fight Wade in a bout exactly zero fans were hoping to see, and he?ll have to act as if he?s excited about it.
And given how much Golovkin loves to fight, it?s probably not out of the question that he is excited about it.
?I feel not bad; I feel great,? Golovkin told Yahoo Sports. ?My training camp, good. My skills, my speed, my power are all there but I?m more experienced, smarter, hungrier, so I?m a better fighter. You will see. You will see on Saturday night.?
Loeffler has one of the toughest jobs in the sport. He gets to promote an incredible talent, who is also extraordinarily charismatic as well as fan and media friendly.
But there are few compelling options for Golovkin in his weight class, one that he makes easily, other than Alvarez and perhaps Danny Jacobs. And Alvarez is the bigger star and his promoter calls the shots. Jacobs is aligned with Al Haymon and Haymon fighters don?t typically fight on HBO, which has an exclusive contract with Golovkin.
So each time Golovkin fights a lesser name, be it a Marco Antonio Rubio or a Martin Murray or a Willie Monroe or a David Lemieux, Loeffler has to sell it to fans who are disappointed he?s not fighting Alvarez or Julio Cesar Chavez or Carl Froch or Andre Ward.
And when Loeffler was pressed on the possibility, or to be truthful, the likelihood, that Alvarez will face someone other than Golovkin next, he reverts to the only stance he can take: The belt.
?[Alvarez?s team] asked the WBC to be able to make a title defense [before fighting Gennady] but after that, the mandate from the WBC is clear: He would have to fight Gennady next, or he?ll lose the belt,? Loeffler said.
Golovkin has the interim WBC belt and if Alvarez declines to fight him next, the WBC has said it would strip Alvarez and declare Golovkin the outright champion. Of course, sanctioning bodies change their minds all the time, and that?s no guarantee to happen. And fans at this point don?t care: They want to see Golovkin, one of this era?s special talents, in against someone who actually has a chance.
The time for patience is long since past.
