Golden Boy?s failed lawsuit against Al Haymon and Haymon Boxing showed just how incredibly reliant they are on Alvarez?s star power?
Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is just about one month away and the only certainty is that pockets will be lined, bank accounts will be padded.
For some, however?like Alvarez?s promoter Golden Boy and his archenemy, Golovkin?the weight of a Canelo payday is a downright necessity.
The fight will do well on pay-per-view and money will be made, of that everyone is fairly certain. Last time out, the two managed to generate 1.3 million buys and bring in over $27 million at the gate (the third largest boxing live gate of all time, after Mayweather-Pacquiao and Mayweather-Conor McGregor).
Golden Boy disputed the reported PPV buy figure as premature and well below the actual number, but never followed up with the supposed ?real? numbers, so one can assume that the initial sales reports were pretty accurate. At any rate, the whole crew at the Oscar De La Hoya outfit will breathe easier with a bit of a windfall coming this September when their only real money-maker gets back in the ring after missing his usual May fight date due to his much-reported clenbuterol controversy.
Documents made public during Golden Boy?s failed lawsuit against Al Haymon and Haymon Boxing showed just how incredibly reliant they are on Alvarez?s star power. According to the promotional company?s own financials, the Mexican star was far and away their most profitable asset?accounting for 94% of their net income in 2015 and all of their net income through the first half of 2016. One can assume that the 2017 financials are similar to those in 2015 and 2016.
So, September 15 is a very big day for Golden Boy. It?s pretty much, literally, a ?must-win? fight for their star. A big financial score leading to future financial scores is necessary if GBP is to maintain its footing near the top of the boxing food chain.
The cold, hard truth for the Golden Boy team is that just about every other fighter who has turned a profit for them over the last three years or so has either moved on to another promoter or retired. Luis Ortiz, Amir Khan, and Lucas Matthysse?who were marginally profitable assets, but well below Canelo in that regard?are all gone. Francisco Vargas is no longer a main stage fighter. Twnety-year-old Ryan Garcia is potentially a star in the making, but still several years away from making any sort of real money for the company.
All in all, Canelo IS Golden Boy at this point and one can only imagine the angst it caused Oscar and company when the whole clenbuterol debacle did away with one of those Canelo paydays earlier this year.
For Team Golovkin, this upcoming fight is also a big deal, mostly because of how much they also need Canelo right now.
Reports vary as to how much the Kazakh KO artist made for last year?s bout with Alvarez, but estimates tend to center around the $20 million mark after all dust settles and all revenue streams are added up. With his people negotiating a much more favorable revenue split this time around, it?s safe to assume that he?ll be making significantly more for the rematch. Whatever the case, though, he will make as much as ten times more fighting Alvarez than he could make fighting anyone else currently at 160. That?s a pretty big deal for a 36-year-old fighter looking to pad his bank account a bit before retiring. It also explains Team Golovkin?s dogged and more than occasionally obnoxious attempts to get the first Canelo fight made.
For Alvarez and Golovkin, as competitors, it matters a great deal who emerges victorious this coming 15th. A legacy will be defined by a win or a loss. In the big picture, though, everyone involved has already won.
Like it or not, this is a world-inside-a-world that revolves around one of the few bankable North America-based superstars left in the sport. It?s hard to ignore just how much Canelo (and the money he can still generate) means to those who have latched on to him, either as allies or as foes.
It?ll be interesting to see just how this dynamic plays out after Golovkin is out of the Canelo picture and big fight pickings are slim for Team Canelo. There will still be dangerous and challenging fights for Alvarez, but none as all-around lucrative as a Golovkin bout.
So, maybe efforts will be made to make sure Golovkin STAYS in the picture.
A realist would bet the farm on this Canelo-GGG drama playing out for as long as possible. This probably means that, by hook or by crook, part 3 of this multi-act drama will go down Cinco de Mayo weekend, 2019, in Vegas.
