By Przemek Garczarczyk

No softball questions here. In this adversarial Q&A, K2 Managing Director Tom Loeffler addresses the harshest social media criticisms regarding WBC/WBA/IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s career. From Daniel Jacobs to Canelo Alvarez to accusations of greed, underhanded negotiating and hiding PPV numbers, it’s all here.

“Let’s see: since our first GGG haters interview two years ago, Gennady sold out Madison Square Garden, The Forum in Los Angeles, sold out O2 Arena in London and became the most dominant champ in the sport of boxing with 23 knockouts in the row. GGG became one of the most marketable stars in boxing, especially internationally, with his fights being shown in more than 100 countries worldwide. Gennady brought back the definition of true world champion. Not much to dislike, is it? Four of his former opponents, victims of GGG’s knockout power, were already headlining main events (Stevens-Lemieux) or will be soon (Murray-Rosado) on two continents… but I’m ready for the haters next round!” said Loeffler as fight week kicks off for the middleweight unification between Golovkin and WBA regular champ Danny Jacobs, live on Saturday from Madison Square Garden on HBO PPV.

“GGG’s ‘all the belts’ hashtag should be replaced with an ‘all the easy money’ hashtag. He could easily fight at 168, but doesn’t want real competition”

Tom Loeffler: His goal was always to unify the middleweight division. GGG said that from the beginning. Big fight at 168 or 154? Both Gennady and Abel (Sanchez) had said that they will entertain thought about these kinds of fights. Gennady is very close to unifying the division and, honestly – he should be commended for that! There’s no unified champion right now – outside Cecilia Braekhus, another K2 client – no male boxer who can say that he unified his division. It proves how difficult this is and for Gennady, trying to do that should be reason to celebrate him – not criticize. Unifying means fighting the best – the other champions.

“Fighting Brook was what Loeffler is all about – money. When will you announce that you want to fight Conor McGregor?!!!”

Funny. Very funny. How we got Brook was a much-publicized affair. Starting with the mandatory position for Canelo; then he vacated the title. Then we went to unify the division with Billy Joe Saunders… but he chose a different route. Then we scheduled a fight with Chris Eubank Jr, over in the UK, because Gennady has no problem to travel to someone else’s home country. We had this fight signed or at least agreed to until Eddie Hearn, who after a month of negotiations with Eubank jr, told me that he could not deliver him or Eubank wouldn’t sign the contract. It was Eddie Hearn’s suggestion to do the Kell Brook fight and I thought it was a tremendous solution to the situation we faced. We wasted so much time between Canelo, Saunders and Eubank Jr that Kell Brook was the only alternative to still fight on the September date. Eddie had the O2 Arena reserved, Sky TV was ready and HBO over here had the date reserved. I will give Kell Brook tremendous credit again – he showed more heart than the top middleweights.

I will not leave you without answering the McGregor “question”…

We all have a lot of respect for Conor McGregor, for what he achieved in the UFC. If he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr, we wish him all the best. We already have seen that Floyd has no interest in fighting Gennady in boxing. He’s looking at Conor as a big commercial opportunity, knowing that he’s clearly the favorite in the boxing ring. Just like Conor would be in the octagon. If Conor fights Floyd and beats him… then it maybe is something worth talking about.

“What is all this talk about fighting Mayweather at 154? GGG not popular enough?”

GGG always said that he will make an exception for Floyd, who had two world titles and was considered the best 154 pound champion. You have to respect that. It didn’t bring any reaction or response from Floyd, so we didn’t pursue it.

“Loeffler should take the 10 million dollars offered by Canelo. If this fight doesn’t happen, it’s on Loeffler, not De La Hoya”

GGG is fighting a big fight with Jacobs on Saturday. Canelo has his own big fight coming in May. If both guys win, there’s something to talk about. We will make a deal which is fair to Gennady – in the biggest fight in boxing. Both fighters need to be compensated correctly. Let’s not forget that Gennady is ready to fight Canelo at any time, from the moment when Canelo called him into the ring.

“Hey, if both Loeffler and HBO really wanted Canelo vs. GGG, it would have already happened”

Really? If it would be up to us, it would already have happened before Canelo beat Cotto. Cotto was mandated to fight Gennady as well. It really started with Sergio Martinez. When Sergio was considered the best middleweight in the world and Gennady wanted to unify with Sergio… he decided to fight Cotto, who was a much smaller guy moving up the weight. And then Cotto preferred to fight Canelo – instead of Gennady. It’s all comes back to a basic premise: if GGG is supposed to be such an easy guy to beat, people would be lining up to fight him. They wouldn’t be running away. It clearly has something to do with the fact that he’s knocked out 23 guys in a row. People know that getting into the ring with Gennady, they will be in for a lot of punishment, not a 12 round boring decision. It’s called domination or in boxing – early stoppage.

“Golovkin needs Jacobs more than Jacobs needs him. Loeffler got lucky making a deal with an Al Haymon fighter.”

The WBA mandated that fight. It’s a tremendous matchup. Both guys have a lot to gain. Gennady can beat the clear #2 middleweight in the world, cements his position as best middleweight in the world. Danny Jacobs can, in one night, rocket to the top of the boxing world. Not just top of the middleweight division – to the top of the sport of boxing. He beats GGG, he takes all his titles and becomes The Man.

“Does anyone know Loeffler’s expectations for this PPV? Will the numbers be top secret again?

The last one wasn’t a secret. The last one generated 150,000 PPV buys. For Gennady to do that – his first PPV against Lemieux who had never been on PPV and really had not have that much US exposure – selling out Madison Square Garden and in the process adding an IBF title to his collection – makes that a hugely successful event. Now Danny Jacobs, with a bigger profile, and GGG increasing his profile since October 2015, plus Chocolatito Gonzalez, Andy Lee, Carlos Cuadras, Ryan Martin on the card proves that this is a terrific show as a whole event. Fans and the media reaction have proven that.

“Can’t wait for Danny to school GGG. Jacobs shouldn’t give him a rematch because Danny wasn’t treated right during contract negotiations”

Not true at all. I would definitely disagree that Danny was not treated right during negotiations. I was very fair on both sides; we worked a fair deal with Al Haymon. We are working very closely with his promoter – both Gennady and Danny are very engaged in marketing and promoting the fight because both have a lot at stake to make this as successful as possible. We give Al Haymon and Danny Jacobs a lot of credit for helping to put this fight together. Danny Jacobs will not only get the biggest payday of his career but also an opportunity to fight for all of Gennady’s titles. If the promotion goes the right way, GGG also will get the biggest payday of his career. A win-win situation. Many people think that Danny is the most difficult test for Gennady. Jacobs is physically much bigger than Gennady; he’s got great power and hand speed. According to many people, if anyone can beat GGG, Danny has the best chance. The world will be watching on March 18.