Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn still believes the Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennadiy Golovkin 3 trilogy match is the bigger fight than the welterweight undisputed clash between Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford.
Despite the belief that many boxing fans have about the Canelo-Golovkin III trilogy being a fight that is no longer what it once was due to the 40-year-old Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) being past his prime, Hearn says the global reach of the fight makes it a bigger one than the Spence-Crawford fight.
While the hardcore boxing fans might be less than excited about seeing Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) fight Golovkin again, the casual fans will gladly purchase the match in big numbers on DAZN pay-per-view when the two meet on September 17th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The management for undisputed 147-lb champions Spence and Crawford are still trying to put together a fight between them for October but it’s expected that they’ll get an agreement.
Hearn says Crawford and Spence have never brought in big PPV numbers during their careers. Spence’s best numbers are 300,000, and Crawford’s 150,000.
Hearn feels those numbers are poor compared to the massive PPV buys that Canelo has routinely pulled in during his career, especially in his two fights against Golovkin in 2017 and 2018.
Canelo-Golovkin III bigger than Spence-Crawford
“Spence vs. Crawford, what a fight, but neither guy has ever done even a moderate pay-per-view number, in all honesty,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing Show.
“It’s still an incredible fight. 300 [thousands] is terrible,” said Hearn when told that Errol Spence did 300,000 buys recently on pay-per-view.
“I don’t care if you’re coming in, been there or not, that’s the number. When you’re talking about a guy like Canelo Alvarez, who is consistently doing 600,000, 900,000, a million-two for this one [Golovkin] last time, a million-one or whatever it was.
“You’re talking about a global reach and recognition of global icons with the sport [Canelo and Golovkin]. We compare it as fight fans, and fight fans say, ‘Actually, I like Spence-Crawford.
“In boxing, it’s a lot closer in that community than the worldwide world. In boxing, they’re both outstanding fights.
“One is a fight between two legends [Canelo vs. Golovkin] and the other is a fight [Spence vs. Crawford] between two outstanding elite champions or maybe one.
“I think we’ll get that fight [Spence-Crawford] because everybody is under pressure. The great thing about boxing is everyone wants to win.
“We’re talking about networks and talking about promoters. What fans have to realize is we want to outdo the competition.
“I want to see it [Canelo-Golovkin III] because I know the bad blood is real, but I’m not interested in saying it on Zoom. I want to say it face-to-face,” Hearn said.
Trilogy fight had to be made
“Some fighters have a way they interact with the media, and really, they feel like they’re a role model and an ambassador,” Hearn said. “They don’t feel like they should say bad stuff.
“With Saul, he’s all of those things, but he doesn’t hold back. He’ll tell you how he feels. Both men are desperate to go to town on the other and to do damage and stop them in this fight.
“I know from Saul’s point of view, all he wants to do is stop GGG and knock him out. I think GGG will say, ‘I have to go for the knockout.’
“We’d already signed an agreement to do that fight,” said Hearn about why Canelo chose to take the Golovkin fight instead of facing Dmitry Bivol in an immediate rematch on September 17th.
“I just feel like, one, it [Canelo vs. Golovkin] is a bigger fight, and two, he already had it in his head he was going to fight Bivol and then fight GGG.
“I think if you said to Saul, ‘What do you want to do?’ I think as a fighter, he would say, ‘I want to fight Bivol.’ I felt that because of our relationship with Bivol, we could do GGG [on September 17th], and then Bivol.
“Again, when you start looking at these guys’ resumes, and you throw in all the fights that existed before Bivol. You got, Bivol, defeat, GGG, undisputed, Bivol rematch, It’s like it never ends.
No regrets making Canelo-Bivol
“No, because I don’t have a say in this,” said Hearn when asked if he regrets matching Canelo against Bivol. “Oscar De La Hoya said, ‘Oh.’ I had no say. I put options forward to Eddy Reynoso and Canelo Alvarez before the fight.
“There were all these smart a**** after the fight come out and say, ‘What a terrible decision.’ They said it was an easy fight before the fight. He [Canelo] was a massive favorite.
“We knew it was going to be a tough fight, but we all thought he would win. Most people that if they had to pick a winner, they had Canelo Alvarez. It was the air of invincibility that may have slipped from Canelo Alvarez.
“It’s a great thing for this fight [with Golovkin]. We’ll find out,” said Hearn when asked how the loss to Bivol affected Canelo’s mindset. “He can two do things.
“It can deplete your confidence or give you a kick up your backside and it can motivate you even more. This guy is a freak of nature. He’s a winner,” Hearn said about Canelo.
“The next day after the Bivol fight, he went out and had some commercial appearances. This is a class guy. He had some appearances and sponsorships that he’d signed up.
“He gets beat [by Bivol], and he was devastated. I went back to the hotel and went to bed. He’d already signed a commercial deal to go somewhere. He went out until three or four in the morning, and then he played golf at nine in the morning.
“I thought I’d go out and walk around with him. He was deathly silent, and he was standing over a ball, and I was thinking, ‘Oh, no. This could go anywhere,’ and he would hit it six feet.
“I said, ‘You just lost, your whole world has come crumbling down, yet you can stand over the golfball.’ He’s a good golfer, but he’s not a pro. I don’t want to say too much about him because I’ll get criticism, but he’s a winner.
“He wants to keep taking challenges. I think he felt a little bit aggrieved that people criticized him like he was jumping up a division that he had no right to be in.
“I said in all the build-up shows, ‘He has no right to be at 175 pounds, but he chooses to for him to almost get beat. It was like, ‘Maybe, I can get beat at 175, so I’ll go up there.’
“He’s handicapping himself. That’s what greats do. Look at Lomachenko. He’s not really a lightweight. He’s a super feather, and could probably make featherweight.
“Look at Inoue. Inoue is going to get beat by maybe moving up to super bantamweight or featherweight. That’s the only way he’ll get beat. Shakur Stevenson is another great fighter.
“Maybe he has to move to 135 or 140 to get beat unless Joe Cordina beats him.
“I don’t mind saying it. I love Canelo Alvarez. I think he’s a great guy, and I think he’s a winner. He motivates me. It’s about being around good energy,” said Hearn.
