Gennady Golovkin struggled for the first time in his professional career, barely edging by Daniel Jacobs last Saturday and winning a close decision. It kept alive his undefeated streak, and though it didn?t allow Golovkin to ascend to the top of the mythical pound-for-pound list (at least in my estimation), it kept alive his hopes to meet Canelo Alvarez in what would be the biggest fight the sport could entertain.
But how does last weekend?s victory affect Golovkin as he and his team try to finally negotiate a deal to face Alvarez later this year, particularly since the PPV buys weren’t enormous?
According to Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya, who represents Alvarez, he?s changing the terms of the contract. He told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that he?s pulling the current deal and negotiating for Golovkin to make a percentage of profits off the PPV rather than a big guaranteed payday.
?Now obviously we clearly know who the ?A? side is and that?s obviously Canelo,? De La Hoya told the Times earlier this week. ?So I?m going to instruct my president, Eric Gomez, to continue talks and, hopefully, it can get done, but I strongly feel Canelo is obviously the ?A? side and there?s no doubt about it.?
Frankly, Alvarez was the A side before last Saturday?s fight, and assuming he beats Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in May, he?ll continue to be the most prominent pugilist on a potential Alvarez-Golovkin promotion.
Either way, negotiations between the two sides restarted this week, and in the mind of Tom Loeffler, Golovkin?s promoter, he thinks after last week?s fight it might be easier to entice other middleweights to take on Golovkin, the most avoided fighter of the last half-decade.
?[Alvarez] still has his May fight with Chavez, but if there is a way to make it happen, we will find a solution,? Loeffler told Forbes this week. ?With Golovkin?s [23-fight] knockout streak broken, hopefully other middleweights will think they have a chance against him now.?
De La Hoya has said that he?s offered Golovkin an eight-figure purse ? reports say Golovkin could have made as much as a guaranteed $15 million payday ? but now it appears that idea of the flat fee is history.
“We have to look at today’s market,” De La Hoya told ESPN earlier this week. “I’m not sure what the numbers are for his fight [against Jacobs], but I hear they’re low. For me to take a huge risk on a guarantee is absurd.”
And even though Golden Boy and De La Hoya have been largely seen as the main reason an Alvarez-Golovkin fight hasn?t materialized in the past two years, De La Hoya said that fight is still his first choice.
?We?re ready to make this fight,? De La Hoya said. ?We want to make this fight.?
Golovkin-Jacobs PPV buys expected to exceed Golovkin-Lemieux: When Golovkin faced David Lemieux in his PPV main event debut in 2015, the fight earned about 150,000 buys. His fight last Saturday beat that total but not by much.
Loeffler told Forbes on Thursday that, though he only had preliminary figures, the ?numbers are tracking for at least 160,000, which builds on the numbers for his first PPV.? On Friday, Loeffler told Yahoo the final total was 170,000.
While the Jacobs fight might not have compelled many people to buy the fight, there were encouraging numbers from the sold-out card. According to Loeffler, the live gate from Madison Square Garden was more than $3.7 million, which nearly doubled Golovkin vs. Lemieux (also taking place in MSG). Golovkin also sold $150,000 worth of merchandise at the event, as compared to $124,000 for the Lemieux fight.
Loeffler also said Golovkin ? who has become perhaps the most marketable fighter in the sport ? added two more gloval sponsorships to his resume: Chivas whiskey and Hublot, the Swiss luxury watchmaker.
But if the buy numbers were slightly disappointing, blame the NCAA tournament, in part. As Awful Announcing points out, this year?s NCAA tournament is the most watched in the past 24 years.
Chocolatito part of bloody bout: On the undercard of the Golovkin-Jacobs fight, boxing got one of the best fights of the year. Though many disagreed with the judges? decision, Roman ?Chocolatito? Gonzalez lost the fight and his spot at the top of the pound-for-pound rankings. But it?s hard to argue how great a contest Gonzalez and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai produced.
As you can see here.
