GGG turned down a whopping amount of money first time around it was reported, when offered a Canelo fight.
The figure of $10 million is being banded about across the boxing news media today but in reality, the offer could actually be quite a bit more than that, with Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya after his charge’s win over Liam Smith last night also mooting that more than eight figures was offered to Canelo on more than one occasion.
Obviously this is all speculation in terms of what the exact figure offered was, but one would imagine that a fight of that magnitude could warrant a significantly bigger pay day than $10 million for Golovkin.
It is now starting to emerge the real reasons why the fight hasn’t happened yet, in my view.
Not because either guy doesn’t fancy the job, or because of some catchweight negotiation between 154lbs and 160lbs, or even because of some boxing politics getting in the way, as is often the case in the fight business.
No, no, to me at least, this seems like a good old fashion case of promoters haggling over money to get the best deal possible for their man.
Golovkin is due to face his mandatory with the WBA (Danny Jacobs) next but is also rumoured to be in talks about a unification fight with WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders.
Provided he gets past that next test and Canelo wins his next fight, against whoever it might be, there surely is no logical reason standing in the way of making this fight happen next September as planned – unless of course the promoters can’t agree on the money.
