by David P. Greisman
Gennady Golovkin could’ve been making his major pay-per-view debut in summer 2014, but when a proposed move to super middleweight to face Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. failed to come off, Golovkin wound up defending his middleweight title against Daniel Geale instead on HBO.
Golovkin made quick work of Geale this past Saturday. Afterward, his promoter, Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, said “there’s no rush” to having Golovkin enter the pay-per-view realm.
“The only way it makes sense to do a pay-per-view is if he has a pay-per-view opponent, and I think there’s three clearly out there: Canelo [Alvarez], [Miguel] Cotto, [Julio Cesar] Chavez [Jr.],” Loeffler said. “Mayweather’s a little bit unrealistic. Gennady’s never called out Floyd. It’s just when people ask, would he come down to 154 and fight Floyd, the answer is ‘Yes,’ but that’s not calling him out, because Floyd fights in a lower division.
“Those are the realistic pay-per-views. Gennady is happy to fight on HBO, and we think he reaches a broader audience.”
Indeed, Golovkin’s ratings have been growing noticeably with each appearance on the network.
Golovkin’s HBO debut, against Gregorz Proksa in September 2012, pulled in 685,000 viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. Golovkin vs. Gabriel Rosado pulled in 813,000 viewers in January 2013. Golovkin vs. Matthew Macklin pulled in 1.1 million viewers in June 2013. And Golovkin vs. Curtis Stevens pulled in 1.4 million viewers in November 2013.
“When we’re building his star and building his cachet, we’re happy to continue to build that until he gets to the point where there’s a competitive match that people are going to be willing to pay for,” Loeffler said.
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