By Edward Chaykovsky
A few days ago, promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions discussed the frustration being voiced out by super middleweight king Andre Ward.
Ward has been calling for a fight with IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin, who Loeffler promotes. Ward says Loeffer and Golovkin are avoiding the fight and claimed Loeffler rejected an emailed offer for a 50-50 deal.
Loeffler says there were two reasons the deal was turned.
The first reason, Golovkin already had a fight finalized for October 17th, when he faces IBF champion David Lemieux in a unification on HBO Pay-Per-View from New York's Madison Square Garden.
And the second reason, if Golovkin's PPV with Lemieux is a big financial success - which Loeffler believes it will be - he says his boxer will deserve the lion's share of a financial split and sees no reason to do a 50-50 cut with Ward - because of the Olympic gold medal winner's lack of activity, lacking of fights outside of California and no PPV showcases.
"If the pay-per-view for the Lemieux fight is what we think it should be, Gennady would deserve more than 50% against Ward, considering Ward has barely fought outside of California," Loeffler said to the LA Times. "So it’s unreasonable to ask us to commit to that [50-50 deal] right now."
Loeffler confirms that a fight between Golovkin and Ward is not likely until the first quarter of 2017 at the earliest. The winner of Golovkin-Lemieux will be the mandatory challenger to the WBC middleweight title, which is being contested between Miguel Cotto and Saul Alvarez in November. After the WBC title, Loeffler says they will target the WBO belt which is currently held by Andy Lee.
There is a strong possibility that Ward will be at light heavyweight by 2017, which is going to make a fight with Golovkin a non-starter.
