By Radio Rahim
K2 Promotions head Tom Loeffler, who promotes IBF, IBO, WBC, WBA middleweight champion Gennady "GGG" Golovkon (37-0, 33 KOs), is hoping that his boxer's last performance will inspire Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) to finalize a deal for a September fight.
Their teams are currently negotiating the financial terms and it hasn't been easy to reach a deal.
In his last fight, which took place earlier this month at New York's Madison Square Garden, Golovkin had all he could handle against mandatory challenger Daniel Jacobs. For the first time in his career, Golovkin saw the end of the twelfth round. He won a unanimous decision, but the scores were close. Prior to that fight, Golovkin had stopped 23 opponents in a row.
Canelo is scheduled to return on May 6th, against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That fight takes place at catch-weight of 164.5-pounds.
The big obstacle, for the moment, are the financial terms in their fight. Golovkin wants to secure a reasonable percentage of the overall revenue for that event.
Now that some experts are wondering if the 35-year-old Golovkin is finally showing his age, Loeffler is crossing his fingers that Canelo will become more reasonable with the financial terms.
“When fighters think they have no chance of winning a fight, that’s when they want these crazy amounts of money. Hopefully Canelo is inspired by the performance [of Jacobs] and it gives him a glimmer of hope that he can win the fight. We’re not taking anything away from Canelo. I have a lot of respect for him and for what he’s accomplished in his career," Loeffler told BoxingScene.com.
"The numbers in that fight will be Triple G and Canelo’s biggest payday of their careers. Whenever you have a financial structure like that, it’s just about working out all the details. Fights like that, there are so many different revenue streams and you have to go through each one and make it so that it’s fair to both sides. And if there is a way to make it happen, we’ll certainly work with [Golden Boy President] Eric Gomez to try to make that fight happen."
