HBO, Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez All Need Each Other After Rough Year

Gennady Golovkin might not be able to get Canelo Alvarez into the ring anytime soon. But the cinnamon-haired star’s hand injury could be just what it takes to land the Kazakh wrecking ball the significant fight both he and the fans have craved.

Dan Rafael of ESPN.com reports that Canelo’s fractured right thumb will force him to skip a scheduled December date on HBO. It could free up enough money for the network to stage a significant fight between GGG and the WBA’s secondary middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs.

The bout is being targeted for December 10 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 

The Barclays Center is also on hold for that date, per Miguel Rivera of Boxing Scene. 

This has the look and feel of a crossroads moment for all the principles.

Golovkin has established himself as one of boxing’s marquee names, but it’s been hell for his team to find anyone willing to fight him. Canelo won’t do it until next year (at the earliest), and the rest of the division has proven that they’ll do a lot of talk talking but not much walk walking.

He needs this fight.

HBO needs it more.

It’s been a bruising year for the network that has long held the throne as the premier cable destination for the sweet science. A budget crunch has resulted in a slew of mismatches (you can basically count the rounds won by underdogs on one hand), limited the activity of high-profile fighters and forced others to pay-per-view prematurely.

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Canelo—boxing’s biggest draw—reportedly compounded HBO’s struggles by drawing in less-than-stellar (though not unexpected) PPV numbers from his fight against Liam Smith. Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times reports that the fight isn’t expected to surpass 300,000 subscriptions.

That fight represents what has been a disappointing year for HBO.

It was a fight nobody wanted that proved every bit the mismatch (albeit somewhat entertaining) that most expected when it was announced to audible groans from the boxing community over the summer.

You never want to see a guy get injured, but this is one of those situations where the ultimate outcome may prove beneficial.

The fans are spared a match between Canelo and another mismatched opponent nobody wants to see—who is clamoring for Willie Monroe Jr. after his undercatch win over Gabe Rosado?—and the money can be used for a much better fight.

How much do you think the public’s perception of HBO’s year will change if the network is able to pull off a doubleheader that features Sergey Kovalev’s defense of the unified light heavyweight championship against Andre Ward in November followed by GGG putting his treasure trove on the line against Jacobs in December?

It would be far from a perfect year, but it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, right?

Jacobs called out Golovkin shortly after his knockout win over Sergio Mora—a meaningless rematch—and seems willing to at least come to the table for negotiations.

He’s GGG’s mandatory, and Al Haymon, who did business with Tom Loeffler on the Kazakh’s title defense against Dominic Wade, doesn’t seem to be standing in the way.

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The main impediment would seem to be money.

The WBA has ordered Golovkin to defend against Jacobs, and the pair still have a couple of weeks remaining to strike a deal before a purse bid will be ordered. Under a purse bid, the champion—GGG in this case—would be entitled to 75 percent of the winning bid.

Jacobs absolutely won’t take that small a cut of the money to take on the toughest challenge of his career in a fight most probably won’t feel he’ll have much chance of winning. He’s always qualified his promises to take the fight on the basis of it being for the right price.

What that price is remains to be seen, but it certainly won’t be the money from a purse bid. And it will have to come from the fight taking place on network. There’s no way that PPV is an option for a fight that would do huge box office in New York but probably not sell well on a pay platform.

But members of Team Golovkin are confident that a purse bid will not be necessary since positive talks toward finalizing a deal are ongoing with Haymon.

“We are in talks with Jacobs' team. We have a very good understanding with Al Haymon and I think we are going to finalize the deal without a purse bid,” said Golovkin’s manager Oleg Hermann, per Gregory Stangrit of Boxing Scene.

That’s good news for the fighters and the fans.

Now it’s up to HBO to open up its wallet if a fair deal can be reached.