Canelo-Golovkin Saga Will Show If Money or Legacy Is More Important in Boxing

You want to know what’s ruining boxing?

The "he doesn’t need that guy," business-first mentality that has gone from a trickle to a flood in the sport and derailed or unnecessarily delayed many fights fans have demanded to see.

It’s a euphemistic way for a fighter or his team to say they can make good enough money taking on lesser challenges that it’s not necessary to risk things in tough fights for possibly less coin.

This isn’t something new.

There’s always been a give-and-take balancing act between legacy and bank account, and professional fighters—regardless of your personal preferences or opinions on them—deserve respect for risking their lives every time out to provide for themselves and their families.

They both need and deserve to maximize their earning power for however long it lasts.

But we’ve arrived at an era where there are far too many businessmen and far too few fighters.

Tell that to Gennady Golovkin and his team, and you can bet they won’t have a hard time buying what you’re selling. It’s become par for their course.

Golovkin didn’t take much time to figure out Dominic Wade and blast him into the type of oblivion everyone expected from the second the contract ink dried and the fight was announced. There are levels to this sport, and GGG operates several above what was his IBF mandatory challenger.

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The Kazakh power puncher, holder of two full middleweight championships and one interim title, did not hesitate when asked about his preferred next opponent.

“Just gimme my belt. I want my belt,” Golovkin told HBO’s Max Kellerman during post-fight comments in reference to the full WBC Middleweight Championship that Canelo Alvarez will defend May 7 against Amir Khan on HBO pay-per-view.

GGG has been the mandatory challenger for that belt since 2014.

Miguel Cotto showed as much interest in fighting him as most people would in voluntary root canals without anesthesia, but Canelo—who took that belt off Cotto last November—seemed to be different.

“My goal is to give the fans what they want to see, and that’s the best fights. The best fighting the best. And that’s my philosophy. That’s what I want to do,” Canelo told Bleacher Report ahead of his 2014 fight with Erislandy Lara.

The best fight and best fighter available for Canelo is clearly—there is zero debate—Golovkin, who, despite not holding the increasingly meaningless lineal status, is the division’s best fighter.

Once again, there is no debate on that question.

So, let’s recap.

Canelo wants the best fights and to give the fans what they want.

Golovkin is the top dog in the yard Canelo claims as his.

The fans want it.

No, they demand it.

Should be easy, right?

Here’s where the dreaded “he doesn’t need that guy” logic comes into play.

Bernard Hopkins, legendary middleweight and light heavyweight champ, also partner in Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Canelo, tweeted this on Saturday night:

You can understand the sentiments behind Hopkins’ words.

He was wearing his promoter’s hat and advocating for his guy in a climate that has become increasingly used to disappointment over big fights not happening with no reason given.

Nobody can fault him for having his fighter’s back, but one has to wonder what Hopkins the fighter would think about what Hopkins the promoter said.

Hopkins is perhaps the last surviving member of a breed of fighter who values legacy above all other rewards. He’s said many times (including more than once to yours truly) that money comes and goes, but legacy can never be taken away once it's set.

He’s a fighter who spent his entire career running toward the challenges that forced most other boxers to run the opposite way and more often than not turned them back.

Adonis Stevenson, more than a decade Hopkins' junior, scuttled a significant fight with Sergey Kovalev by jumping across the street to another network. Ironically, it was his further avoidance of Hopkins that led the ageless wonder to his own showdown with the Krusher.

He went through hell and lost, but he still had the sheer force of will necessary to press on and hear the final bell. That was a victory in its own right.

Hopkins took that fight for legacy and to once again push the envelope.

Canelo has spent much of his career sounding like a similar guy.

He fought Austin Trout (a tricky and avoided fighter) when easier bouts were available to earn a shot at boxing’s then pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Canelo was too green to make his shoot-for-the-stars moment amount to much, but he established himself as a guy willing to reach for the brass ring and gained invaluable experience.

Follow-up wins over Alfredo Angulo, Lara (whom nobody would fight before or since), James Kirkland and Cotto—two big punchers, an obnoxiously-hard-to-hit boxer and a future Hall of Famer—proved he’s not just all talk when it comes to tough challenges.

Hopefully, it stays that way and his decision to fight Khan—a former junior welterweight champion who most fans rightfully feel was chosen for his name and dollar signs rather than real challenge level—isn't the leading indicator of a shift in strategy.

Canelo might not need GGG from a financial standpoint, but he needs him for legacy and to keep the fans on his side.

Boxing fans are a hardcore but often fickle bunch, and one sin they rarely forgive is ducking big fights for easy ones. They'll (rightly) turn on you in a second for that offense.

No matter how much you get paid to do it.