$1 Million Weight Penalty for Golovkin-Chavez Jr.

Negotiations for a 168-pound bout on July 19 between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and WBA middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin include a penalty of $1 million if either fighter fails to make weight, Top Rank Promotions CEO Bob Arum informed ******.com on Friday. "That's one point that has been resolved," said Arum. "That's if either party is overweight, then he pays a fine of a million dollars to the other guy." Chavez (48-1-1, 32 knockouts) is coming off consecutive unanimous decisions over Bryan Vera, the rematch being a super middleweight bout on March 1. Their first fight in September was contested at a 173-pound catchweight after a deal was reached in the wake of Chavez's failure to make the originally contracted super middleweight limit of 168. "If he comes in over 168, then he pays the other guy a million dollars," said Arum of a clash that is scheduled to take place at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. "Who gives a s–t? He should pay a big fine if he can't make 168, particularly now that we know that he can make 168." Golovkin (29-0, 26 KOs) is coming off last month's seventh-round stoppage of Osumanu Adama, representing his 16th straight knockout victory. Golovkin's promoter, Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions could not be reached for an immediate comment. "One thing that we want to stress is that we've agreed to the 168-pound fight for Chavez," said Loeffler in an earlier interview. "But Gennady is a small middleweight and after this fight, he plans to go back down to 160 to prove that he's the best middleweight. But one of the stipulations for this fight with Chavez was to fight at 168." Golovkin pulled out of a scheduled April 26 defense against Andy Lee due to the death of his father, Gennady Ivanovich Golovkin, who passed as the result of a heart attack on February 18. Golovkin immediately began observing a period of mourning, a tradition in his culture, to spend time with his family in his native Kazakhstan. Loeffler said he expects Golovkin to be in attendance at the April 12 rematch between WBO 147-pound beltholder Tim Bradley and Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.