Tom Loeffler, promoter of middleweight king Gennady Golovkin, is as anxious as his fighter is to have a more active 2017 compared to last year. Frustratingly, for GGG himself and the fans, Golovkin boxed just twice in 2016, seeing less than seven rounds of action.
This year, with his defence against Danny Jacobs first, this Saturday, GGG aims to be a whole lot more active, with three fights being the goal. Loeffler, as quoted by RingTV.com, told the media that if there is an opportunity for Triple-G to fight in June, he will indeed do so. There is talk that GGG may fight reigning WBO middleweight champ Billy Joe Saunders in his home country of Kazakhstan in June.
Loeffler spoke about the speculation surrounding his fighter:
“There’s a lot of different speculation out there,” Loeffler said. “Based on the experience of last year, we can’t wait for other people to decide. If there’s an opportunity for him to fight in June, he will. There’s plenty of time to promote a fight in September if that’s the case. But certainly, nothing is signed for any future fight so we’re waiting to see what happens. If it’s possible for him to fight in Kazakhstan in June, he would certainly like to do that and if he can fight Canelo in September he’d like to do that as well. We can’t base [GGG’s] schedule on something that might happen in September.”
As far as fight fans are concerned, the more of Golovkin, the better. Looking too far ahead can be dangerous for any fighter, and Jacobs has gone on record as saying he feels disrespected by Golovkin looking at other fights past Saturday’s, but it would be great if one of the world’s most exciting fighters fought in Match, June and September.
Golden Boy have expressed concern over having enough time to properly promote a GGG-Canelo super-fight between June and September, but Loeffler says there would be plenty of time. We’ll know a lot more after Saturday, and then even more after Canelo’s fight against Chavez Jr. in May. But if things work out, we could see Golovkin get those three fights in in 2017. And fans would be more than happy.
Should GGG get past Jacobs and then either Saunders or someone else in June, and if Canelo gets past Chavez, the September fight between them will have had plenty of promotion already. Great fighters need to be active. Golovkin and Loeffler fully understand this.
