Rafael: Golovkin’s purse close to $15 million for Rolls fight

By Kenneth Friedman

Boxingnews24.com

Gennady Golovkin made close to $15 million for his non-title fight against Steve Rolls (19-1, 10 KOs) last Saturday night on DAZN, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Although GGG’s purse for the fight was listed at $2 million, he potentially made a lot more than that in coming close to $15 million for the four-round wipe-out, says Rafael.

There’s no official number for GGG’s purse for the Rolls fight. It sounds like a lot of money for what was essentially tune-up fight for Golovkin against a bottom dweller in the top 15. Few boxing fans had ever heard of the 35-year-old Rolls before last Saturday night, and it’s likely that they hear too much more of him.

If this figure is correct, Golovkin (39-1-1, 35 KOs) is making big money even for simple mismatches like the Rolls fight in his six-fight, nine-figure contract with DAZN. One can argue that it’s no wonder GGG isn’t interested in fighting Demetrius Andrade, Daniel Jacobs or Jermall Charlo. Golovkin doesn’t need to fight those guys with the money he’s making with DAZN.

“Purses for the GGG-Rolls card: Gennady Golovkin’s purse is listed as a laughable $2 million. He’s getting closer to $15 million. Steve Rolls $300k,” said Rafael on his Twitter.

With the money GGG is getting, it’s as if he’s STILL the IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion. Technically, Golovkin lost his three titles in a 12 round majority decision defeat at the hands of Saul Canelo Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs) last September in Las Vegas, Nevada. That was Golovkin’s last fight with HBO before they stopped broadcasting boxing. Shortly after Canelo signed a whopping $365 million contract with DAZN, Golovkin followed him over, and was given a reported nine-figure contract. There’s a lot of speculation from boxing fan whether Canelo and GGG will ever see the end of there huge contracts.

If Alvarez and Golovkin are able to make big money fighting less popular fighters like Rocky Fielding and Steve Rolls, how does the money add up to keep DAZN bringing in enough money to afford all the contracts. For that reason, it’s believed that we’ll likely see the Canelo vs. Golovkin trilogy fight in September. If these two are the ones that bring in the subscribers to DAZN, it’s likely that they’ll push them to make the third fight in September, and then look to get them to fight a couple more times.

Canelo vs. GGG the next Rafael Marquez vs. Israel Vasquez rivalry?

We could see a Rafael Marquez vs. Israel Vasquez type rivalry with Canelo and GGG fighting each other repeatedly on DAZN until both guys are shot to pieces. For the fans that don’t remember the wars that Marquez and Vasquez had against each other. They fought four times. By the time they finished their fourth fight, both guys weren’t the same fighters. This was just a three year period from 2007 to 2010. Both fighters took so much punishment in their fights, they had nothing left when they were done their rivalry. It’s not a big deal for the 37-year-old Golovkin, because he’s pretty old in nearing 40, but for Canelo it’s different. He’s only 28-years-old. He’s going to get chewed up if he faces GGG two or three more times. Canelo might win all the fights against Golovkin, but they’ll likely be grueling affairs.

“His power punch hasn’t gone anywhere. He was kind of feeling out Rolls in the beginning,” said Loeffler to IFL TV about Golovkin’s fight last Saturday night. “Rolls came to fight. He came to win, but GGG was able to overpower him. I would say the way Steve Rolls fought, he would beat Rocky Fielding,” said Loeffler.

Many boxing fans believe Rolls looked better than he actually is because Golovkin was making it easy for him not fighting all out. This was a big fight for Rolls, and he was trying his hardest. Golovkin didn’t really step on the gas until the fourth round. In rounds one through three, it appeared that Golovkin was sparring with Rolls. Golovkin took some big shots that should have woke him up, and made him go after the guy. When Golovkin finally did attack Rolls hard in the fourth, he folded right away. The looping right hands and left hooks that Golovkin was throwing from weird angles was too much for Rolls. Up to that point, Rolls had done a good job of picking off a lot of Golovkin’s power shots on his arms and gloves. When GGG started looping his shots in the fourth, he hurt Rolls right away, and then took him out with a left hand.

DAZN wants the Canelo vs. Golovkin trilogy fight says Loeffler

“That’s the fight everyone wants to see,” said Loeffler about the Canelo vs. Golovkin trilogy fight. “That’s the fight DAZN wants to put on as a marquee event,” said Loeffler. “We see Canelo needs GGG to get these mega fights just as GGG needs Canelo to get these mega fights. We did it twice before. GGG in everybody’s mind won the first fight pretty clearly. In the second fight there’s a lot of unfinished business, because there’s no way I saw Canelo winning seven rounds in that fight. Six to six, scored it a draw, then GGG keeps his titles. When people start talking about, ‘You need belts.’ The people’s champion, the real champion is here. He’s the one that should have kept his belts,” said Loeffler.

It would be better for Loeffler and GGG to get over loss to Canelo. They would look better taking the high road and admitting defeat than continually trying to deny what happened. They should follow Anthony Joshua’s lead and show humility in defeat. There’s nothing wrong with Canelo winning a close decision. He did look like the better fighter in rounds one through six, and he had a great 12th round.

Canelo learned from the GGG fights

“If two of the judges had scored the 12th round correctly, one judge scored the round incorrectly. If one of the two did, he’d still have his belts,” said Loeffler. “Look, Canelo and GGG are bigger than the belts right now. It’s the biggest fight that can be made in boxing, because the heavyweights can’t seem to get it together to make those fights. I think it’s going to be a massive event. We don’t disparage Canelo, even though he arguably lost to GGG twice. You’ve got to give him credit. He learned a lot. He gained a lot of confidence in those two fights, and then he beat Danny Jacobs. He didn’t knock Danny Jacobs down like GGG did, but he beat Danny Jacobs. I think the third fight is going to be a great fight. I know that’s what DAZN wants to do. That’s what the fans want, and now we’ll see if Canelo wants it,” said Loeffler.