Gary ‘Spike’ Sullivan is saying that the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin rematch will be taking place in September and that he’ll be fighting on the undercard and then facing the winner of the contest in December. O’Sullivan isn’t saying he was TOLD that he would be fighting the September Canelo-GGG winner.
O’Sullivan is just saying in a matter of act way that he’ll get the winner of the Canelo vs. Golovkin II fight, which reeks of wishful thinking on his part. O’Sullivan is way over in Ireland, and he’s not likely hearing what’s really going on in the negotiations between Team GGG and Golden Boy in Los Angeles, California. You can for sure that O’Sullivan doesn’t deserve a title shot against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin. O’Sullivan facing the loser of the fight isn’t such a bad idea if they’re badly in need of a confidence booster to get their spirits up. O’Sullivan is good for that purpose. More likely though, O’Sullivan is only going to be used by Golden Boy for Canelo and no one else.
O’Sullivan (29-2, 20 KOs), who is little more than a fringe contender with no fan base in the U.S, doesn’t say why Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) would have any interest in fighting him rather than WBA ‘regular’ Middleweight champion Ryota Murata in Tokyo, Japan. There’s a lot more money for Golovkin to make fighting Murata in a huge stadium in in Japan than there is fighting the little known 33-year-old O’Sullivan in the U.S in front of a likely half-filled arena.
“I was scheduled to fight Canelo in September after he was originally meant to fight GGG in May,” O’Sullivan said on his social media site. ”Then they got rescheduled for September and I’ll now fight the winner, most likely in December.”
It sounds to me like O’Sullivan doesn’t know what he’s talking about at all. I think O’Sullivan is babbling a about a pipe dream, because GGG is NOT going to fight the little known high-level journeyman. Why would Golovkin fight O’Sullivan rather than the two guys that wiped the deck with him in Chris Eubank Jr. and Billy Joe Saunders? I hate to say it, but Golovkin would be the laughing stock if he were to fight O’Sullivan. It would be a complete joke. I do believe that Golden Boy was planning on matching O’Sullivan against Canelo in September IF the Canelo-GGG II rematch had taken place on May 5, but it obviously didn’t. Golden Boy is likely keeping O’Sullivan on standby to serve as a replacement opponent if they’re unable to negotiate the Canelo-GGG fight on September 15. It doesn’t sound like that fight is going to happen at all.
If Golovkin fights O’Sullivan, he’s going to lose a ton of respect from the U.S boxing public, because they don’t rate the Irish fighter. As far as Canelo goes, I don’t think he cares if he looks bad or not. I think it’s about career survival for him, as if he fights a good middleweight like Daniel Jacobs, Sergey Derevyanchenko or Daniel Jacobs, he’s going to lose to them, so he’s not going to take the risk. Even Saunders would be too substantial risk for the likes of Canelo, so that’s why he’ll likely face O’Sullivan in September if the GGG fight doesn’t get made or in December if he loses to him or even if he beats him. Either way, O’Sullivan is the Plan-B option for Canelo.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya doesn’t seem to know any more than anybody, but at least he has access to the negotiator Eric Gomez, so he can get news updates on him daily. What do you think O’Sullivan is getting? I don’t see him as being a valid source for what will or won’t take place in September between Canelo and Golovkin.
Golden Boy will match O’Sullivan up with Canelo eventually, either in September or December, as they need to give both of them a good payday. Golden promotes O’Sullivan a well as Canelo, and the whole reason he turned down the May 5 fight against GGG is because he was promised a nice payday against Alvarez. Canelo-O’Sullivan would be on HBO PPV. I’m not saying it’s a PPV worthy fight, because it certainly is not. Never the less, Golden Boy will still stick the fight on HBO PPV and hope that enough casual boxing fans will want to pay to see it for the two of them to make good money. Personally, I think it’s a rotten idea for Canelo to fight O’Sullivan, because he’s killing his brand by taking on such a poor opponent, but I don’t think he’s high on true confidence. If Canelo believed in himself, he wouldn’t fight guys like O’Sullivan, Alfredo Angulo, James Kirkland, Amir Khan, Liam Smith and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. You can excuse Canelo fighting one of those guys, but not all six of them.
O’Sullivan has been squawking about him getting the Canelo fight in September since way back in April. I this is more along the same lines with O’Sullivan dredging up the same stuff he was talking last April. The new stuff from O’Sullivan is how he believes he’s going to fight the winner of the Alvarez vs. Golovkin fight in December. Also, O’Sullivan is talking as if it’s a done deal that Canelo and Golovkin are going to be fighting in September, and that doesn’t appear to be the case at all. Right now, the negotiations are not looking good at all for the Canelo-Golovkin fight. That’s probably good news for O’Sullivan, because he stands a good chance of fighting Canelo in September.
It’s going to be a little embarrassing for Golden Boy if they choose to match Canelo against O’Sullivan in September, because De La Hoya mentioned his name along with Billy Joe Saunders, Jermall Charlo and Daniel Jacobs. Golden Boy president Eric Gomez mentioned David Lemieux’s name as well. The hardcore boxing fans immediately predicted that only O’Sullivan has any chance of getting the Canelo fight. If they’re proven right with O’Sullivan getting the fight, it’s going to be a national joke in the U.S. Heck, it’s going to be a joke worldwide if Canelo fights O’Sullivan. I mean, O’Sullivan is a decent fringe level bottom feeder contender, but he should be fighting guys at his own level like Martin Murray, Hassan N’Dam, Conrad Cummings, Luis Arias, Immanuewel Aleem and Willie Monroe Jr. I’m not sure that O’Sullivan could beat any of those guys. Unless Canelo’s self-confidence is totally shot since his questionable 12 round draw he received against Gennady last September, he needs to be facing better opposition than this. If Canelo isn’t good enough to beat the likes of Jacobs, Derevyanchenko, Demetrius Andrade and Jermall Charlo, then he needs to go on a diet and move back down to 154.