By Miguel Rivera
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) maintains that he has every intention of fighting WBC, IBF, IBO, WBA middleweight champion Gennady "GGG" Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) in the fall.
The two camps have been in talks for a September 2017 showdown since last year.
They both have tough assignments coming up. Canelo moves up to a catch-weight of 164.5-pounds to face Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6th from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Golovkin makes a mandatory defense against Daniel Jacobs on March 18th at New York's Madison Square Garden.
For much of last year, the two sides were arguing over the weight. Canelo called for a catch-weight of 155, while Golovkin refused to drop below the middleweight limit of 160-pounds.
Haggling over weight is a thing of the past. Now the two sides are unable to reach an agreement on the money.
Canelo's team offered Golovkin a flat fee for a September pay-per-view collision. The reported amount has ranged from $10 to $15 million.
Golovkin's side has rejected the idea of fighting for a flat fee, and made a counter-offer for a percentage of the overall revenue. They expect the highly anticipated fight to generate huge revenue numbers from sponsorships, television rights, the gate and most importantly the pay-per-view buys. Golovkin, who acknowledges that Canelo is the A-side, believes the Mexican star is treating him like an everyday opponent by refusing to give him a percentage.
Canelo has a different take on the situation. He feels the offer that Golden Boy made to Golovkin is very strong and sees no reason to give him more.
"This is the idea [to fight Golovkin after beating Chavez Jr.]. We already made him an offer to take the fight. But opponents are always looking for a lot more than they deserve. They are always looking for more money than anything, and then of course this complicates things but we made an offer, [it's up to him to accept] and we'll make this fight this year," Canelo told TV Azteca.
