Gennady Golovkin's DAZN deal is a win for him and a win for fans
The big drama show ended on Friday when Gennady Golovkin chose the online streaming service DAZN with which to finish his boxing career, spurning overtures from the Premier Boxing Champions and Top Rank/ESPN in the process.
He showed patience, resolve and determination to hold out to get what he wanted.
What he wanted, primarily, were three things:
The ability to compete against the best fighters in the world, which DAZN provided. Among others, it has elite middleweights Canelo Alvarez, Daniel Jacobs and Demetrius Andrade under contract.
While terms were not released, it is believed the deal will exceed nine figures.
The ability to showcase boxers he plans to sign for his GGG Promotions. As part of his new deal, DAZN will stream two GGG Promotions shows a year in 2020 and 2021.
Golovkin is one of those fighters who loves the gym and is never far from peak condition. But after his hotly disputed loss to Canelo Alvarez in their Sept. 16 rematch in Las Vegas, Golovkin needed some time off. And then he had to handle the business negotiations, taking a more active role than he had previously.
The result is that he hasn’t been in the gym much and isn’t certain what it’s going to feel like when he begins to train again. He’ll turn 37 next month and will be a senior citizen, boxing-wise.
“In my everyday life, I feel good, the same, but I haven’t been in the boxing gym for a while,” Golovkin said. “I may have lost something. I don’t know. But if I lost something, it might make for conditions that are more interesting, more attractive [to other fighters].”
He said he still isn’t sure who he’ll fight next, but said he wants to choose an opponent the public will view as “most interesting.”
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He referred to a third fight with Alvarez as “interesting, of course,” and said he believes he won the last fight. Golovkin got a draw and a loss in his two fights with Alvarez, but believes he won both.
Never did he consider walking away from the sport as a result of his frustration, he said.
“Of course, I was very disappointed and I’m still disappointed because I don’t think I lost that fight,” he said of the 2018 bout with Alvarez. “It was difficult. But I gained a lot of knowledge and experience from that fight and it will only help me as [I go forward]. It was a big experience.”
His team will remain familiar. While there was much discussion during negotiations about the status of promoter Tom Loeffler, none of it came from Golovkin, who sealed himself away from the media and conducted the negotiations in a low-key manor and out of the spotlight.
He said he wants Loeffler and trainer Abel Sanchez to remain with him going forward.
“I hope so,” Golovkin said when asked if Sanchez is still going to train him. “Abel is an integral part of this team, and I hope he’ll stay with me and continue to be part of my team.”
Golovkin, who said one of his goals in getting into promoting fights is to share his experience with young fighters, particularly those from Eastern Europe, said he “would love [Loeffler] to continue to be a part of this.”
So, armed with one of the richest contracts in boxing and no impediments to the biggest fights, Golovkin wants to get back to doing what he does best.
“I’m a boxer, of course, and that’s what I love,” he said. “The business is done, and now I want to do the best fights the fans and the people want to see.”
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