After the 2nd round knockout dud of a fight with Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Vanes Martirosyan, the common consensus was in September, we will get the fight we’ve been waiting for; The rematch of Canelo Alvarez & GGG, the biggest fight in boxing.
Canelo, suspended for 6 months for failing a drug test, and promoter, Hall of Famer, Oscar De La Hoya, have voiced other plans recently, however. Part of those recent plans have been zeroing in on current WBA Middleweight champion, Billy Joe Saunders. Also mentioned in plans have been Jermall Charlo, and even the possibility of Daniel Jacobs.
The blame for this deviation in plans, be it a smoke screen or not, has been laid squarely at the feet of Golovkin. In an email from De La Hoya to RingTV, the former boxing legend states that Golovkin simply does not desire the rematch as he claims (enter smoke screen here). But, it seems that money may be the snag that drags the rematch drama on and hang into the balance.
Per ESPN, Golovkin, frustrated with everything that ruined the Cinco De Mayo rematch date, demands a split purse of 50%. While that certainly sounds more than reasonable to some, Golovkin accepted less than 40% in the pairs’ first bout, and Canelo, the A-side, and the Golden Boy team can very well shy away from such a request. From team Canelo’s viewpoint, their fighter can easily net a million views and upwards of 20 million dollars in revenue from the fighter’s native Mexican market of fans.
Seems the Canelo v GGG rematch drama has come from Golovkin personally demanding a higher split. He reportedly took under 40% for the first fight, but after everything that has happened with the rematch is now requesting something closer to parity. @ESPN say he wants 50/50 😳
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) May 26, 2018
Frankly, it doesn’t matter much what Golden Boy and Canelo’s perspective is because GGG needs the fight more than Canelo does, unfortunately for GGG. The boxing business is not fair, sanctioning bodies are bogus as hell, and everything boils down to following the money. Meaning that the only thing GGG and his team is truly “scared” of, is agreeing to less money to fight!
The rematch doesn’t look very likely for 2018. Even with the current talk of Canelo “moving on” from GGG to another high profile fighter is humorous in its own right. By September 2018, Canelo Alvarez will have been officially out of a boxing ring for a full year. The idea of a year layoff to return to fight Billy Joe Saunders or Daniel Jacobs is too risky for a fighter of Canelo Alvarez’s caliber and simply more for publicity consumption than reality.