De La Hoya says Canelo vs. Golovkin II close to being done

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose

Oscar De La Hoya says the negotiations between Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin are very close to being done. He’s feeling confident that the rematch between GGG and Alvarez can be completed in the next several days for September 15 on HBO PPV. However, at the same time, De La Hoya trashes Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) for him recently asking for a 50-50 purse split for the fight with Canelo.

Golovkin had agreed earlier to a 65-35 split that favored Canelo for the May 5th rematch, but then he changed his mind after Alvarez twice tested positive for clenbuterol.

Despite Canelo now being viewed as a tainted fighter due to his two positive tests for clenbuterol, a lot of boxing fans still want to see him and Golovkin fight each other. There’s still a lot of interest in that fight from fans. But there’s also a lot of skepticism about whether Golovkin will ever be given a decision against Canelo. Thanks to the questionable scoring for the previous Canelo-GGG fight, many boxing fans don’t trust that Golovkin will be given a fair shake with the judges.

”I think that we’re very close,” De La Hoya said to Fghthub about the Canelo vs. Golovkin negotiations. ”We’re not far away. We’re very close, and I’m hoping it can get done in the next couple of days,” De La Hoya said.

This was yesterday that De La Hoya said this. De La Hoya also said that he wants Golovkin to move down from the 50-50 purse split that he’s asking for. If Golovkin is still at 50-50, then it’s unclear why De La Hoya is saying they’re close to having the fight done. Does this mean that Golden Boy is going to move their offer up to near 50-50 or does it mean that Golovkin has decided to move way back down to the 65-35 split that his promoter agreed to last May? It’s hard to imagine Canelo agreeing to a 50-50 purse split right now against anyone. That part must change though once Canelo starts getting beaten repeatedly. If Canelo doesn’t start giving better deals to his opponents once his career implodes, then he might have a tough time getting the better fighters to face him.

De La Hoya says Golovkin isn’t a draw for him to demand 50 percent of the revenue for a fight against Canelo. Further, De La Hoya points out that Golovkin made just $1 million for his fight against Vanes Martirosyan on May 5 for their fight HBO non-PPV fight at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. De La Hoya states that Canelo can fight former IBF middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs and bring in 800,000 buys on HBO. De La Hoya doesn’t say why Canelo has never been matched against Jacobs though.

If Canelo-Jacobs can bring 800K buys, De La Hoya perhaps should have made that fight years ago instead of matching Canelo against Amir Khan and Liam Smith. Canelo-Khan brought in 600,000 buys and Canelo-Smith pulled in 300,000 buys. Canelo only brings in big PPV numbers when he’s facing another big star, like Golovkin, Mayweather and Miguel Cotto. Canelo’s other fights have done lower PPV numbers, much lower. Canelo is the biggest PPV fighter now since Mayweather walked away from boxing, but he’s not a similar star. Mayweather brought in many more PPV buys than Canelo has. The reason for that is like Canelo’s mostly mediocre opposition – Amir Khan, Alfredo Angulo, Josesito Lopez, Liam Smith and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. – and his reluctance to learn how to speak English. Canelo would likely be a bigger draw in the U.S if the boxing public could hear him speak without a translator.

“When fighters move up to different divisions and test themselves against the best, that’s when fighters achieve legendary status, and that’s what Canelo wants to do, but first things first, Triple G is first and that’s what matters, and we’re still in negotiations,” De La Hoya said.

Golovkin will be next if Golden Boy can negotiate the fight with him. It’s nice that De La Hoya is sounding optimistic for a change. but the way that he wildly deviated from that same message by disparaging GGG for asking for a 50-50 deal, it suggests that he might not be as close as he says a putting the fight together.

”It’s ludicrous, it really is,” De La Hoya said when asked what Canelo’s reaction was when he was told that Golovkin wants a 50-50 purse split against him. ”It’s ridiculous. Triple G can go fight Vanes and make a million dollars or he can go fight Canelo and make $20 million. It doesn’t make any business sense. How can one fighter demand 50-50 when he’s not even a draw at all?” De La Hoya said.

Golovkin can ask for more money fighting Canelo because he knows already how much more money his last match-up with the red-headed Mexican star made than in his previous fights. Golovkin vs. Canelo brought in 1.3 million PPV buys on HBO. That’s a considerable number. It’s the best PPV total for Canelo since his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013. It’s not just the money that Golovkin helped bring in that allows him to ask for a bigger cut than last time. It’s the fact that he lost out on a December date last year. Canelo then messed up by testing positive for clenbuterol and was forced to pull out of the fight. Golovkin has probably lost well over $20 million because of Canelo. Why wouldn’t GGG want a bigger cut of the revenue than his first fight with everything he’s gone through?

”Canelo can go fight [Daniel] Jacobs and do 800,000+ homes, easy,” De La Hoya said.

It would be interesting to see how much money Canelo could make fighting Jacobs, if he would actually do so. Common sense tells you that Canelo won’t fight Jacobs, and he won’t fight Jermall Charlo either. The guys that Canelo will fight are fighters like Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan and David Lemieux. The only way Jacobs gets a fight against Canelo is if he continues to look bad like he’s been looking recently in his last two fights against Maciej Sulecki and Luis Arias. If Jacobs continues putting in less than stellar performances, I can see him finding his way to a fight against Canelo, but I don’t think the fight is going to bring in 800,000 buys like De La Hoya says it will. At best, Canelo-Jacobs does 300,000 buys, and possibly even less than that. I think Canelo’s popularity is going to take a major hit due to his 2 positive tests for clenbuterol, and the fact that he was given a controversial 12 round draw against GGG. A lot of boxing fans see Canelo as an artificial fighter, who cheats with PEDs to try and gain an advantage over his opponent. Those fans aren’t going to want to pay to see a fighter that has tested positive for PEDs. The boxing world wants to see Canelo fighting guys like Jacobs, but thus far he’s been resistant to that idea seemingly. Instead of fighting Jacobs, Canelo has taking it easy facing Amir Khan, Liam Smith and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. When Canelo did step up recently in a fight with GGG, he appeared to lose to him in a fight that was scored in a controversial manner.

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