The tortured attempt to get a boxing rematch between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin off the ground has hit its latest and perhaps most fatal sticking point, with ESPN’s Dan Rafael reporting that negotiations have broken down to the point where Alvarez is looking for someone else to fight in September, when his six-month doping suspension ends.
As usual, it all boils down to money. Golovkin wanted a 50-50 split of the revenue after their first fight in September 2017, which was scored a draw even though many boxing observers thought the Kazakhstani middleweight champion had come out ahead (one judge’s scorecard of 118-110 in favor of Alvarez, a massive outlier compared with the other two, was widely ridiculed). Alvarez received a favorable 70-30 split in the revenue in that bout, and a rematch was planned for May 5 in Las Vegas before he twice tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol, leading to his six-month suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. After the rematch had been scuttled, the two sides tried to set up another fight for Sept. 15, reaching a tentative agreement with a 65-35 split in favor of Alvarez. But that deal was never signed and, according to Rafael, a perturbed Golovkin began to demand an even distribution of the revenue.
Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya, Alvarez’s promoter, told Rafael that they would accept a 60-40 split, but 50-50 was out of the question.
“He’s stubborn and wanting 50-50, and it’s not going to happen,” De La Hoya said. “The Canelo train has left the station.
“What people are not understanding is I am not going to come off my demands for the rematch,” De La Hoya continued. “The fact that GGG is stubborn on a 50-50 split and it’s ludicrous. It’s never going to happen. He wants 50-50, and it’s never going to happen. We had already come to terms and they had the contracts a long time, several weeks, and now he wants 50-50?”
The first bout brought in 1.3 million pay-per-view buys and a $27 million gate, the third highest in boxing history. Any rematch would be similarly bankable, especially when you consider that the first fight took place just three weeks after the lucrative boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and MMA star Conor McGregor, when fans likely still had PPV fatigue.
With the Golovkin rematch tabled, Rafael reports that Alvarez’s camp instead has extended an offer to the camp of middleweight contender Daniel Jacobs for a Sept. 15 PPV fight in Las Vegas. Jacobs (34-2, 29 knockouts) gave Golovkin a good fight in March 2017 at Madison Square Garden, losing by decision and ending Golovkin’s 23-bout knockout streak.
