By Steve Kim
The hope was that a fight between WBA/IBO/WBC/IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs) and mandatory challenger Danny Jacobs (32-1, 29KOs) would be scheduled for December 10th.
Now, the fight has been tabled for the early part of 2017. It was announced by Tom Loeffler, the managing director of K2 Promotions, that Golovkin will not fight on that date as planned.
''We're still negotiating with the Jacobs side and we had December 10th on hold with HBO and at Madison Square Garden, but because we don't have a deal in place it wasn't realistic to hold that date," Loeffler explained to BoxingScene.com on Tuesday afternoon. "So we're going to look to try to make a deal as soon as possible and pick a date for 2017 to stage the fight."
So just how sincere is the Jacobs camp in making this fight?
"Every indication that I've gotten is that Jacobs wants the fight," answered Loeffler. "So were continuing to negotiate as the fights going to happen and we'll fulfill our WBA mandatory obligation. That's our responsibility as a champion that has multiple titles. It's just a matter of working out the deal, to make the deal happen."
Last week the WBA ruled that Golovkin as their middleweight 'super champion' was entitled to a 75-25 purse split in a purse bid situation versus Jacobs (who is their 'regular' champion). Loeffler doesn't believe this edict hindered the negotiations and both sides appear to be very focused on reaching a deal before any purse bid.
"No, absolutely not. That's just a guideline to go by. When we're negotiating, it's much more effective to reach an agreement. So that's just a worse-case scenario if it goes to a purse bid," Loeffler said. "But it's really in nobodies interest in this situation to go to a purse bid."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
