Oscar De La Hoya says that Saul Canelo Alvarez has given up on negotiating a rematch against middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, and instead they’re now looking to put together a fight against former IBF 160lb champion Daniel Jacobs for September 15. Golovkin wouldn’t back down from the 50-50 purse split that he was asking for to face the Golden Boy promoted Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs).
”The Canelo train has left the station,” De La Hoya said to ESPN.com about the negotiations between Canelo and GGG being supposedly over with.
It’s interesting how De La Hoya comes across like he’s the one that has all the leverage in the Canelo-Golovkin negotiations. It was Canelo that tested positive twice for the banned substance clenbuterol, causing the cancellation of the May 5th rematch, and costing GGG millions. Canelo is given a 6-month suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and yet De La Hoya is sounding like his fighter Canelo is the one in the power position with the Golovkin negotiations. You can argue that Golovkin fully deserved the 50-50 split, as he was the one that appeared to win the first fight.
“It’s not going to happen,” De La Hoya said about Golovkin’s request for a 50-50 even split.
The Canelo-Jacobs fight will likely take place in Las Vegas. If it’s a close one, you’ve got to assume Canelo gets the win. The boxing fans want to see Canelo-GGG, but evidently Golden Boy doesn’t feel that Golovkin is worth being given a 50-50 split. The low 65-35 offer Golden Boy gave GGG for the May 5 rematch was only a tad bit better than the 70-30 split from the first fight. Jacobs will be lucky if he can get a 75-25 split. I think Jacobs will get at least 25 percent cut of the revenue, but only because he has a powerful promoter in Eddie Hearn. Golden Boy likely isn’t going to insult Jacobs with an 80-20 offer. What would be surprising is if Jacobs gets the same 70-30 offer Golovkin received for his September fight against Canelo last year. Jacobs isn’t a world champion, but I still think it’s possible to for him to receive a similar purse split as GGG did.
The 5’11 ½” Jacobs will have a 3 ½” height and 3” inch reach advantage over the 5’8” Canelo. The speed advantage will be on Canelo’s side, but Jacobs has the better punching power of the two when he’s sitting own on his shots.
This is going to be disappointing news for a lot of boxing fans that were hoping to see Golovkin and Canelo face each other again. Jacobs is a good fighter, but he’s not viewed with as much interest as Golovkin.
Most people thought Golovkin won the fight against Canelo. The two positive tests for Canelo make him look bad. With all the stuff going against Canelo right now, Golovkin isn’t being greedy by asking for an even split for the rematch, because he clearly thinks he was wronged with the decision and Canelo testing positive.
De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez both said they were moving on well over a week ago in terms of negotiating with GGG. They said they were now looking at other options for Canelo to fight. However, the negotiations with GGG continued despite the negative comments from Gomez and De La Hoya. With De La Hoya now saying the train has once again left the station, it sounds like more bluffing on his part.
Assuming that De La Hoya is telling the truth about Canelo moving on, it means he’s going to be negotiating with Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing USA to try and work out a deal. Golden Boy might discover quickly that Hearn isn’t so easy to work with either when it comes to negotiating. Hearn has a huge stable of fighters in the UK, one of which is IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, and he’s used to getting his way in the negotiations.
Golovkin wanting a 50-50 split seems to have really riled up De La Hoya, as he was upset about it, saying that it’s “absurd” and “ridiculous” that GGG was asking for that type of split. Golovkin was fine with taking the smaller split at 70-30 for their fight last September. It’s only after Canelo tested positive twice for clenbuterol that he got very upset and asked for a higher split for the rematch.
There were a lot of boxing fans who were commenting about how Canelo’s physique looked more muscular during their September 16th fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. When Canelo tested positive, I think it made GGG suspicious about him. Golovkin wanted to make sure that Canelo was tested before their rematch. Golovkin then said he wouldn’t fight Canelo unless he signed up for drug testing. Canelo took his time before he finally signed up with VADA recently. That was a hurdle that Canelo was able to leap over to start the negotiations with GGG. Unfortunately, the purse split ended up sidetracking the rematch.
Jacobs (34-2, 29 KOs) could be a tough fight for Canelo if he’s able to regain the form that he showed in 2015 and 2016, when he beat Peter Quillin and Sergio Mora. In the Jacobs’ last three fights, he didn’t look so good against Golovkin, Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki. Jacobs looked especially bad in barely beating the 29-year-old Sulecki by a 12 round unanimous decision that was much closer than the scores handed in by 2 of the judges.
De La Hoya said on Monday that Canelo vs. Jacobs will bring in 800,000 pay-per-view buys. Canelo can go fight Jacobs and do 800,000+ homes, easy,” De La Hoya said.
Jacobs doesn’t bring in big ratings on HBO, so it may be a little difficult for a fight between him and Canelo to bring in 800,000 PPV buys. For a lot of casual boxing fans, Jacobs is known for losing to Golovkin. That’s easily the most visible bout of Jacobs’ career, and he failed to show enough aggression in the first six rounds of the fight to have any chance to winning. Golovkin boxed Jacobs through most of the fight and didn’t bother coming after him with his power shots. When Golovkin did slug briefly in the 4th round, he was able to drop Jacobs. For some reason, Golovkin didn’t bother continuing to slug with Jacobs, because he might have been able to KO him.
A lot of boxing fans are going to think Canelo is running from GGG when they hear the news that he’s fighting Jacobs. The fight the fans want to see is Canelo vs. GGG. If Canelo fights Jacobs, he’s going to turn off more fans who won’t want to pay to see this fight. Jacobs doesn’t have a recognizable name like Golovkin, so it’s a harder sell. I think PPV buys are going to be cut in half for this fight from the previous Canelo-GGG fight. Fighting Jacobs will allow Golden Boy to age GGG a little more. He’s currently, and he has to wait two years before getting a fight against Canelo last year.
If De La Hoya offers Jacobs a 90-10 split for the Canelo fight, then Alvarez will make a ton of money off this fight. If all Golden Boy felt that GGG was worth was a 70-30 purse split as the IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion, then what does Jacobs, a non-champion, rate?