From the June 10 Notes from the Boxing Underground, post-Gennady Golovkin’s annihilation of Steve Rolls:
“At the post-fight press conference Saturday night, Golovkin was peppered with questions about non-Canelo middleweight threats such as Daniel Jacobs, Demetrius Andrade, and Jermall Charlo. His response was fully non-committal and more than a little dismissive.
After ditching the idea of fighting Jacobs a second time because there are ‘new fighters’ out there, undefeated and deserving of a shot, he then ditched the idea of facing those undefeated, deserving ‘new fighters.’
‘Let them fight each other,’ he said via interpreter, referring specifically to Charlo and Andrade.
‘I can’t right now,’ he added in his own voice.”
This snippet of boxing life came to mind while I was thinking about Demetrius Andrade and Jermall Charlo, who find themselves waiting on big-money middleweight opportunities that should’ve already come their way.
I’m going to shock some people and actually side with Golovkin on this one. These guys SHOULD be fighting each other rather than pining away for a Canelo or Triple G payday. Of course, Golovkin didn’t quite feel this way when he was on the outside looking in as a high-risk/low-reward paper champ looking for a fat payday against an established star.
But big-phony hypocrisy aside, there’s truth in Golovkin’s duck, duck, goosing.
I’m going to give Andrade and Charlo the same advice I offered in vain to the Kazakh KO machine when his people whined and wept over their guy not getting the big, challenging fights he deserves—If you can’t get the fights you want where you’re at, move to where you can find them. If this means moving to another division for “challenges,” then so be it. Life isn’t fair, move on.
Lots of fighters have been avoided for various reasons, but they are generally not enabled by network support to stay put in a division and deliver predictable mismatches, as Golovkin was by HBO. Golovkin’s network-fostered sense of entitlement kept him at 160 and put him into the odd position of being able to shame his way into a big money blockbuster against Canelo Alvarez.
Andrade and Charlo, however, would not be able to pull a Golovkin for many reasons—but let’s not even start our way into a debate over the importance of white skin and cartoonish he-man aggression in making networks and media love a fighter to the top. Let’s just leave it at this—Andrade and Charlo could whine and pout their guts out for years and they wouldn’t be one bit closer to a blockbuster than they are now. If anything, their Team Golovkin-like whininess would bury them as sour-pussed crybabies in the media and earn them a reputation as ingrates to the networks.
So, these two top fighters in their physical primes need to stop pretending like the Golovkin rules apply to them and start accepting that they will probably need to make their own path to next-level advancement. This means a move up to 168 if need be or back down to 154 if necessary. It also means fighting each other if they’re both dead-set on staying at 160.
Andrade, because of his ties to Canelo and Golovkin broadcast home DAZN, is a lot closer to a big-money opportunity than PBC’s Charlo, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll actually get a shot at either of the big two anytime soon. He’s still too much risk for too little reward to those with major money to earn off of a Canelo-Golovkin part 3. Why would DAZN let either Canelo or Golovkin fight Andrade now, risking a rematch-dulling loss for their big money guys before cashing out on their investments? It might happen, but it certainly wouldn’t be good business.
Let’s see some outside-the-box thinking from “the next two” after the big two and force a playoff-like dynamic for the middleweight division where, even if they can’t get Canelo or Golovkin into the ring, at least they’ve built their own star to the point where the big two becomes the big three.
The problem is that both Andrade and Charlo are making good money being secondary players. Charlo is PBC’s only high-end middleweight and a foot in the door to maybe, possibly something big later on. Andrade is DAZN’s contender-in-waiting and leverage that can be applied to both of their big middleweight investments.
Andrade, for example, reportedly made $1.5 million for fighting Maciej Sulecki last month. He’d make more fighting Charlo, but not all that much more—and certainly not enough more to warrant risking the seven-figure paydays he’s finally getting. The same could be said of Charlo, who is making good money fighting where he’s at and against whoever can be lined up against him. Why risk the easy payouts for just a slightly larger payout that presents infinitely more risk?
All of this is why Golovkin fought the Marco Antonio Rubios and Dominic Wades of the middleweight division while screaming for challenges rather than actually move up to where the challenges could be had. Who turns down easy money?
Business is Business.
The difference is that Golovkin was a protected entity who could do no wrong in the eyes of a fawning media. If he hadn’t shamed his way into a Canelo fight, he could’ve gone another five or six years fighting nothing but tailor-made opposition and the acclaim would’ve grown, the seven-figure paydays would’ve been there.
Andrade and Charlo will get no such free ride. If they’re not in a big one, soon, everyone will be calling for their heads, stomping on their legacies. It’s already happening to an extent, but give this snowball some time to grow and pretty soon they’ll be portrayed as punchlines to some bad joke about pretend champions and the easy money for stress-free contests will disappear.
Then, necessity will force them to move on to other challenges, ones where the suits call the shots, the matchups are not so favorable, and they’re being brought in to lose.