Hearn says Golden Boy interested in Canelo vs. Jacobs fight

By Dan Ambrose: Eddie Hearn reportedly is saying that he was contacted by Robert Diaz of Golden Boy Promotions in the last 24 hours about putting together a fight between former IBF middleweight champion Daniel ‘Miracle Man’ Jacobs (34-2, 29 KOs) and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) on September 15. Hearn promotes the 31-year-old Jacobs, and he says he wants to face Canelo.

Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya said to Ring Magazine that he feels that middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 Kos) is afraid to face Canelo in a rematch in September. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler says that Golovkin wants the fight with Canelo, but he wants a better percentage deal the first fight last September, and he also wants better terms than the negotiated May 5 rematch that wound up being canceled because of Canelo dropping out of the fight after failing two of VADA’s drug tests.

De La Hoya feels strongly enough to not give Golovkin a bump up in pay that he’s planning on matching Canelo against another opponent in September, even though he’ll make less money fighting Jacobs. The other names mentioned by De La Hoya are Billy Joe Saunders, Jermall Charlo and Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan.

Big news! @EddieHearn just told me that Golden Boy Promotions Robert Diaz has contacted him in the last 24hrs about making the Canelo fight – wanting to gauge their (Eddie’s) interest. Hearn says Jacobs “fancies the fight” and thinks he can win. They want It,” said No Sparring at @NoSparring.

Jacobs won’t bring in the money that Golovkin will for a fight against Canelo. If De La Hoya is serious about not sticking it out with the negotiations with the 36-year-old Golovkin to give him the increase in his purse split from the previous fight with Alvarez, then that move could cost the Mexican star millions. Canelo-Jacobs won’t bring in anywhere near the same amount of money that Canelo-Golovkin II rematch would. Despite having recently signed a multi-fight deal with HBO, Jacobs has failed to bring in huge rating in his two fights on that network against Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki. You can blame Hearn partially for that. Picking Arias and Sulecki as Jacobs’ opponents for the first two fights of his contract with HBO was asking for trouble.

“We’re going to move on and I’m going to start making phone calls to (Daniel Jacobs’) people, to (Billy Joe) Saunders’ people, start making calls to (Jermall) Charlo and (Spike) O’Sullivan,” De La Hoya said to RingTV.com. “It’s clear to us that after all the demands that they made, after Canelo having to do the hair follicle test, having to enroll in VADA, having to be tested by the Nevada State Athletic Commission randomly even before he was enrolled in VADA, it’s clear that GGG is afraid,” De La Hoya said.

Hearn has been hoping big money fight for Jacobs since he first signed him, and now he might finally have a chance to get Canelo. Hearn is probably very happy right now, because he’s been saying for months now that Jacobs is the best fighter in the middleweight division. This would be Jacobs’ chance to at least prove that he’s better than Canelo, but it won’t prove that he’s the best fighter in the 160lb division, because Mexican star is not the best at middleweight. The way that Canelo looked against Golovkin, he’s probably not better than the 5th best fighter at 160 behind GGG, Jermall Charlo, Jacobs and Billy Joe Saunders.

It makes De La Hoya look bad saying that Golovkin is afraid of a rematch with Canelo. After the way Golovkin got the better of Canelo last September, De La Hoya saying that he’s afraid of the guy that he arguably beat makes him sound silly. It’s not working in De La Hoya’s favor for him to continually say that to the boxing media, because he sounds so disingenuous. It would work better if De La Hoya said Canelo is afraid of Golovkin, because then it would make sense to the fans. Canelo was the one that got beaten by Golovkin and was given a 12 round draw by the Nevada judges.

Canelo lost that fight, and then pulled out of the Golovkin rematch after getting popped twice for clenbuterol. And now on top of all that, De La Hoya is quickly pulling out of the negotiations for the GGG-Canelo rematch. It’s not a good look for De La Hoya. He needs to keep quiet and stick it out in the negotiations with Golovkin, because Canelo is the one that needs that fight to redeem himself in the eyes of the boxing public, who saw him as being given a draw hat he didn’t deserve last September against GGG in Las Vegas. Further, Canelo failing two drug tests in preparing for the canceled rematch with Golovkin on May 5 makes him look like a drug cheat in the eyes of many boxing fans.

Golovkin likely wants a better percentage than the first fight because of the failed drug tests. If Golden Boy Promotions are willing to give GGG a better percentage, then they’ll likely have to agree to far less money in a fight with Jacobs. It’s a lose-lose situation for both Canelo and Golovkin. Golden Boy loses as well, because there won’t be as much money from a Canelo vs. Jacobs fight, and that’s if De La Hoya is serious about making that match. If De La Hoya matches Canelo against Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan next, then there will be even less interest in that fight. It’s doubtful that Canelo-O’Sullivan would even pull in 300,000 buys on HBO PP, because it’s not a good opponent and the fight is coming after Canelo’s 2 failed drug tests for clenbuterol and his controversial 12 round draw against Golovkin. The timing would be terrible for Canelo to fight O’Sullivan. That’s why it’s important that Canelo fight a talented opponent next instead of O’Sullivan.

De La Hoya isn’t likely the guy doing the negotiating with Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler. That’s going to Golden Boy president Eric Gomez, and he’s not talking down the Canelo-GGG II rematch. Jacobs is likely being used as a way of getting Golovkin to agree to come in at a lower percentage than what he and his promoter Loeffler wants to get from Golden Boy for the fight. The idea is that if GGG and Loeffler get worried that Canelo is going in another direction, then they’ll agree to the percentage split that they want for him to take.

The best way for Golovkin to get the percentage that he wants for the Canelo fight is to move on, take the fight against his IBF mandatory challenger Sergey Derevyanchenko, and beat him. After Golovkin defeats Derevyanchenko, then Canelo and Golden Boy might be more willing to negotiate. If Canelo really does fight Jacobs, then there’s a good chance he’ll lose that match. The 5’11 1/2” Jacobs would have a 3 ½” height and 3” reach advantage over Canelo. Jacobs would look a lot bigger than Canelo, and he could use that size to give him a lot of problems. Jacobs’ last opponent, Maciej Sulecki, is 6’1”, and the size bothered him. Jacobs does well against shorter fighters. It might be a size mismatch in favor of Jacobs if he were to fight Canelo.