Gennady Golovkin moves off his 50-50 demand with Canelo Alvarez

Gennady Golovkin has backed off his push for a 50-50 purse split with Canelo Alvarez a day after Alvarez’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, threatened to pursue another fight.

Tom Loeffler, the promoter for the unbeaten middleweight champion, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday night at his club card at the Avalon Theater in Hollywood that Golovkin will accept 45%.

“Trust me, it took a lot for Gennady to come off the 50-50 split,” Loeffler said.

Golovkin not only fought Alvarez for less than 40% in September when the pair battled to a draw in Las Vegas, he was deprived of a purse expected to reach or exceed $20 million on May 5, a date scrapped by Alvarez’s two positive samples for the banned substance clenbuterol.

“Out of principle, [Golovkin] thought he should be treated fairly,” Loeffler said. “This whole thing started where he made concessions just to make the first fight. He thought he won the first fight. We all thought he won the first fight, thought it was a terrible injustice with the decision. That’s why he wanted to do the rematch. He agreed to the rematch under less terms than he would’ve gotten had he won the fight officially.

“Then, when the rematch got cancelled, it threw everything haywire and made everything crazy. We had to scramble to make the fight with him. That’s why on principle he wanted 50-50.

“But to make sure he got the fight, he’s made the concession, if Canelo thinks he’s the ‘A’ side, [Golovkin’s] giving him the ‘A’ side, 55-45 split. That’s the same split they gave [former four-division champion Miguel] Cotto when Cotto was the champion. So he’s actually giving Canelo the champion’s split in order to make the rematch. I think it’s the biggest [fight] for both sides.”

De La Hoya announced Tuesday he was having none of Golovkin’s principled stand, first telling ESPN he was negotiating for Alvarez to fight former secondary World Boxing Assn. middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs, a man Golovkin defeated by unanimous decision last year.

Loeffler indicated he coaxed Golovkin to move to 45% in an effort to save the fight, which would happen Sept. 15.

“Both fighters, they have their own views,” Loeffler said. “It’s my job, as well as Oscar’s … to try to make the fight for boxing fans, for the sport of boxing, all the partners of the event. That’s what he’s agreed to do.

“Canelo can’t say he’s not the ‘A’ side now.”

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It was a tense day for Golovkin, who earlier Wednesday learned the International Boxing Federation is stripping its belt from him because he didn’t fight mandatory contender Sergiy Derevyanchenko last month.

Golovkin is reconciling the somewhat-desperate-looking shift because he believes Alvarez knows he needs the rematch for public relations’ sake.

“They need to fight [Golovkin] to repair [Alvarez’s] image,” Loeffler said. “It was a big step that Canelo enrolled into [year-round] testing. Gennady’s been enrolled all the way through the May 5 fight and he re-enrolled leading up to the next fight. This will be the longest Canelo’s ever been tested before a fight.

“Canelo — the fact that he tested positive twice, the fact that he cancelled the fight — if he beats Triple-G, then he’s back on top of the world. I think his confidence is up because he went 12 rounds with Triple-G the first time. Now, Gennady’s a year older. You’ve got to think Canelo’s confidence is up and if they were confident, you would think they would make the fight under those conditions.”

Golovkin also considered Alvarez’s re-enrollment in the Voluntary Anti-Doping Assn.’s year-round testing as a good-faith gesture that deserved one in return.

“That was a big step into moving in the right direction [so] Gennady says that he’ll make the concession to come to 45%,” Loeffler said. “Otherwise, we’re going to look for the next biggest fight for him.

“We know it definitely won’t be Derevyanchenko now because the IBF just deprived Derevyanchenko of the opportunity of fighting against Triple G.”

Loeffler took the news of the 45% shift to Golden Boy Promotions President Eric Gomez on Wednesday following a two-hour meeting with Golovkin.

“I communicated it to Eric because he said there was no way he could get Canelo to agree to 50-50,” Loeffler said. “Eric says he’s going to talk to Oscar and Canelo. Both sides want the fight. It’s a matter of coming up with something they feel is fair.”

Loeffler said Golovkin ultimately decided, “It’s a combination of everything. He respects Canelo’s ability in the ring.

“At the same time, had he gotten the right decision the first time, we wouldn’t have been going through this whole thing. We would have started out with a much more fair split.”