Sulaiman asks GGG to sign contract for Canelo rematch

Boxingnews24.com

By Sean Jones

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman is asking Gennady Golovkin to stay in negotiations with Saul Canelo Alvarez and sign the contract for the September 15 fight. Sulaiman doesn’t think Golovkin should walk away from the negotiations just because of the money. However, if GGG does decide not to take the fight with Canelo, then Sulaiman says he’s going to order him to defend against his WBC mandatory challenger Jermall Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs).

In making that move, Sulaiman would greatly complicate matters, as Golovkin has already been ordered to defend his IBF middleweight title by the International Boxing Federation against mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko by August 3 or else he’ll be stripped of his title. It’s believed that GGG will face Derevyanchenko if he’s unable to negotiate the rematch with Canelo.

What’s interesting is that Sulaiman isn’t encouraging Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions to increase their offer to the 50-50 split that GGG is asking for. Sulaiman sounds like he wants Golovkin to accept the offer made by Golden Boy for the May 5th rematch, which wound up being canceled after Canelo came up positive for clenbuterol twice. Golovkin wants a fairer deal because of Canelo pulling out of their May 5 fight, and because GGG showed him that he can bring in a lot of PPV buys. Their fight last September brought in 1.3 million PPV buys, which was higher than the 900,000 Canelo vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. brought in last year.

The negotiations between Canelo and Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) are currently dead in the water after GGG asked for a 50-50 equal split of the purse for he September 15 rematch. That’s well above the 65-35 split that Golden Boy Promotions is offering Golovkin. They don’t feel that he’s worth 50 percent of the revenue. They’re not even offering him 40 percent, and that suggests that they see him as not contributing enough to the fight in terms of increased pay-per-view buys to rate a 60-40 deal.

Right now, the two sides are so far apart that it’s unlikely a deal will be made unless one of the sides blinks. Will Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy blink first and give Golovkin the 50-50 deal or will it be GGG’s promoter Tom Loeffler, who will do the blinking by bending to the wishes of Golden Boy and Canelo.

”If your interest is to show that you are the best, that you are the champion and will beat Canelo, you have everything ready to sign and get into the ring on September 15,” Sulaiman said to ESPN Deportes. ”That was the recommendation I gave you.”

Golovkin’s likely response to Sulaiman’s comment would be that he ALREADY did beat Canelo last September, but the odd scoring by two of the judges prevented him from being given the win that he deserved. Since the boxing public sees Golovkin as the winner, be essentially already beat Canelo except in the minds of 2 of the judges (Adelaide Byrd and Don Trella). If Golovkin gives in and signs he contract like Sulaiman wants him to, then it could cost him a huge amount of money. This isn’t just a few cents like Sulaiman says. Canelo is said to have made $50 million for the fight last September compared to GGG’s $20 million. If the split was an even 50-50, Golovkin would have made $35 million instead of $20 million. There’s a huge difference between GGG making $20 million compared to $35 million.

”Golovkin is asking for the modification of an agreement that was to fight in May,”Sulaiman said about Golovkin no longer wanting to agree to the 65/35 purse split for the May 5 fight. ”My feeling is that he is sacrificing the weights for a few cents,” Sulaiman said.

If Sulaiman sees it being just a matter of a few cents, then he should tell Canelo to agree to the 50-50 deal, because it’s only going to be a few cents. The fact is if Golovkin agrees to the 65-35 split that Sulaiman seems to want him to do, he could end up with $25 million to Canelo’s $45 million if the fight generates $70 million like the previous fight. It’s still very little compared to the huge stack of dough Canelo is making. With GGG, it’s about respect. When you’re the IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion, as Golovkin is, and you’re defending against a fighter nine years younger at 27 and with no titles, it’s tough to accept making so much less. Canelo’s future outlook at middleweight isn’t good. He’s probably not going to unify the division. Canelo is popular with his casual boxing fans. They’re the ones that support him in huge numbers despite the fact that he’s no longer a world champion.

”If the fight is not done, he will have to go with (Jermall) Charlo,” Sulaiman said about Golovkin.

It sounds like Sulaiman is sending GGG a warning shot by letting him know what the repercussions will be if he doesn’t fight Canelo. Oh well, if Golovkin will need to fight Charlo soon anyway, so it’s not like it’s going to be a shock to his system that he’ll have to take that fight. But we are talking about a fighter that struggled to beat Austin Trout last year. Jarrett Hurd did a better job of beating Trout than Jermall did. Golovkin will do well against Charlo, especially if he doesn’t have to worry about the judging like he would if he fought Canelo.

Charlo isn’t a huge name in Las Vegas the way that Canelo is. Charlo doesn’t mean as much to the city of Las Vegas as Canelo, who fills he city with visitors each time he fights there. I don’t see anyone giving Golovkin any problems as far as contenders and champions go. WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders will be an easy fight for GGG. Ryota Murata, the WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion, is very beatable as we saw in his first fight against Hassan N’Dam.

Golovkin has already beaten Daniel Jacobs last year by a 12 round unanimous decision. If the two face each oher in a rematch, I expect Golovkin to be much more aggressive in going after Jacobs to knock him out the same way Dmitry Pirog did in 2010. Golovkin is going to have to take care of three mandatory challengers within a short space of tie in Sergey Derevyanchenko [IBF], Jermall Charlo [WBC] and Daniel Jacobs [WBA]. If Golovkin beats all three of those guys, then he’ll have basically emptied the division. If Golovkin never faces Canelo again due to the Mexican star’s decision give him a much lower purse split, then Golovkin’s main opposition for the remainder of his career is Charlo, Jermall Charlo, Derevyanchenko, Jacobs, Jarrett Hurd and possibly Jermell Charlo, Hurd and Jermell will be moving up to middleweight at some point to chase bigger paydays.

There will be a flood of talent coming into the middleweight division soon, and Canelo will be on his own having to deal with those much bigger fighters. Hurd would be a bigger obstacle for Golovkin than Canelo, Charlo, Jacobs, Demetrius Andrade, Murata or Saunders. Hurd’s heavy hands, high work rate, huge size and good punch resistance would make him a difficult opponent for GGG. The thing is though, Hurd is so easy to hit. If Golovkin is able to hit Hurd as he can with flush shots, he could separate him from his senses. Erislandy Lara stunned Hurd in the later rounds with a big I believe in the 11th. If Lara can hurt Hurd, then Golovkin will be able to possibly knock him out.

“Gennady wants a fairer division [purse split] due to the cancellation of the fight on May 5 and the success of the first show (last September),” Sulaiman said to ESPN Deportes.

So, there it is. Loeffler says Golovkin wants fairer split of the revenue because of the canceled fight on May 5, as well as the pay-per-view buys he helped generate on HBO PPV last September for the Canelo fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Loeffler failed to mention that Golovkin also wants a bigger purse split because he’s the IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion and Canelo is just the challenger. It doesn’t sit right with GGG that Canelo should get a 65/35 purse split when he’s the champion. Canelo gets his name mentioned first on the posters and the other advertising. Canelo gets to come into the ring last, which is a way of showing the boxing fans who the champion is. Canelo is The Ring middleweight champion. However, Golden Boy Promotions owns Ring Magazine, which makes some boxing fans feel that the only reason Canelo hasn’t been stripped of his Ring title is because Golden Boy owns it.

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