By Radio Rahim
While Ringstar Sports CEO Richard Schaefer is confidently picking Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo Alvarez (48-1-1, 34KOs) to beat WBA/WBC/IBO/IBF middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs) next September - he also believes the hard puncher from Kazakhstan deserves a fair monetary split.
Schaefer, when he held the position of CEO at Golden Boy Promotions, promoted several of Canelo's biggest fights - including the bouts against Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Austin Trout and several others. He left Golden Boy in June of 2014, a little over a month before Canelo's scheduled fight with Erislandy Lara.
One of the biggest issues in making Canelo vs. Golovkin is not the weight, as was the case in the past, it's the money.
Golovkin was offered a flat fee for the contest. He obviously rejected that proposal and wants a fair split of the revenue.
Canelo and his handlers believe Golovkin is not a pay-per-view star and doesn't come close to having the same drawing power.
Schaefer is well versed in handling delicate pay-per-view negotiations. He views Golovkin as one of the biggest names in the sport and says the middleweight champion should be fairly treated at the negotiating table - by receiving a fair split of the revenue.
He predicts the pay-per-view should do well over a million buys - which is far above the PPVs performance of Canelo recent wins over Amir Khan and Liam Smith.
"It takes two to tango. Canelo's last pay-per-view wasn't exactly a success either. I think Golovkin is today one of the most recognized names in the sport. Golovkin is a big name. It's one of those where we did these fights where you put one and one together, and whether one is a little bit bigger or one is a little bit smaller - it doesn't matter, because one plus one doesn't really equal two - it equals three, or four or five. Or in this case it equals well over one million on pay-per-view," Schaefer said.
"I think it has to be a split where you take into consideration Golovkin's value and not just a flat fee. I think there should be an upside consideration. But truth be told, Canelo is the bigger name and the bigger star. It's not about who is better or perceived to be better, its about who's the bigger star. Does Canelo deserve the lion's share? Of course he deserves the lion's share, but you still need to treat the opponent fair as well and give him an upside, maybe [a percentage of the revenue] over a certain number of homes [on pay-per-view]."
