De La Hoya: Gennady Golovkin’s thin win doesn’t increase his ‘B’ side value for Canelo Alvarez fight
With negotiations scheduled to resume this week for a Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin fight, promoter Oscar De La Hoya indicated Golovkin’s narrow victory over Daniel Jacobs did nothing to increase his “B” side value in the potential middleweight title bout.
De La Hoya told the Los Angeles Times in a Monday telephone interview that he believes the chances of striking a deal with Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler for the bout “decrease” because of Golovkin’s showing in a 115-112, 115-112, 114-113 unanimous-decision triumph at Madison Square Garden.
Loeffler has already attempted to counter-offer a previous offer by De La Hoya to stage the bout, and De La Hoya indicated his preferred purse split isn’t likely to budge after Jacobs (32-2) landed more power punches on Golovkin (37-0, 33 knockouts) and won the final three rounds on two judges’ scorecards after surviving a fourth-round knockdown.
Golovkin’s 23-fight knockout streak ended in his 18th consecutive middleweight-title triumph.
“Not that [Golovkin’s value] went down,” De La Hoya said. “I just feel that given today’s market, I really feel that GGG’s side has to be more than fair to make this fight.
“I actually believe [the percentages of making the fight] decrease. It all depends on the negotiations – and we’ll continue talks – but now obviously we clearly know who the ‘A’ side is and that’s obviously Canelo. So I’m going to instruct my president, Eric Gomez, to continue talks and, hopefully, it can get done, but I strongly feel Canelo is obviously the ‘A’ side and there’s no doubt about it.”
Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs), a former two-division champion and Mexico’s most popular fighter, will meet countryman Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. May 6 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in an HBO pay-per-view bout that is expected to far out-sell Golovkin-Jacobs.
Buy it or not, De La Hoya said his original opinion that Alvarez, 26, can defeat Golovkin, 34, didn’t change much despite Saturday’s result.
“I’ve always been confident in Canelo’s abilities,” De La Hoya said. “He’s only getting stronger. He’s only getting faster. He hasn’t peaked. And he’s looking very strong, especially at this weight. I’ve always stated Canelo is a superior fighter than most, if not all fighters, out there and it will be an explosive, terrific fight.”
Jacobs provided two valuable blueprints to Alvarez. First, he packed on nearly 20 pounds after his Friday weigh-in and withstood Golovkin’s power.
De La Hoya said Jacobs’ most glaring mistake was not trusting his strength earlier.
“Jacobs gave Golovkin too much respect. I’ve always said if you’re a fighter who gets into great shape, you can handle any pressure, any type of punch from anybody,” De La Hoya said. “You have to be in shape to stand toe to toe, and that’s the mistake Jacobs made: In the second half of the fight, he did terrific, but in the first half of the fight, he gave Golovkin too much respect.
“Mark my words: When Canelo and Golovkin gets made, Canelo’s not going to respect him one bit. Right from the start.”
De La Hoya said it’s good for boxing that Jacobs has asserted himself as a valued player in the division, but the promoter maintained he will try to make Alvarez-Golovkin first.
“We’re ready to make this fight. We want to make this fight,” De La Hoya said. “Now we have to wait and see what happens with Chavez on May 6.”
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