Mayweather ‘circus show’ won’t steal thunder from Golovkin
LONDON — Gennady Golovkin has dismissed the idea that Floyd Mayweather’s comeback against Conor McGregor will overshadow the Kazakh’s Sept 16 clash with Canelo Alvarez.
Golovkin will defend his WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight crowns at T-Mobile Arena three weeks after Mayweather faces McGregor at the same Las Vegas venue.
Retired five-weight world champion Mayweather, now 40, will not have fought for nearly two years by the time he faces 27-year-old Irishman McGregor, a mixed martial arts champion, on Aug 26.
But McGregor, a twoweight UFC titleholder, has never fought as a professional boxer and will be facing one of the ring’s all-time greats.
Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs), 35, insists his fight with Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) is bigger and of more significance than M a y w e a t h e r - M c G r e g o r, which he sees as a “circus show”.
“Mayweather and McGregor is not for fighters, but business,” Golovkin said at a media conference in London on Monday.
“I think people understand what is a true fight, a boxing fight, like mine with Canelo, and what is a big show, maybe sometimes for people a funny show, like a circus show.
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“Everybody knows Conor is not a boxer, so it is just show. If you want to watch a show, please watch them. If you want to watch a true fight, a true boxing fight and you respect boxing, watch my fight with Canelo.
“This is business. Conor with Floyd is not a boxing fight because Conor is not a boxer. But a big-money fight is OK for business, a show fight is OK.”
Regardless of some dismissing it as a mismatch, Mayweather-McGregor is expected to do record business and could eclipse Golovkin-Alvarez in revenue and pay-per-view numbers.
But Golovkin-Alvarez is a fight for the ages, one of the most eagerly awaited bouts in years, pitting two crowdpleasing icons against each other to determine the world’s best middleweight.
Golovkin, a knockout machine who now fights out of California, has made 18 consecutive title defenses. In March he was taken to points for the first time since 2008 by American contender Daniel Jacobs.
Alvarez, 26, also has an impressive record that has seen him win world titles in two weight divisions with one blemish — a majority loss to Mayweather in 2013.
Only one world title — the WBO belt — will not be on the line when the pair collide, but the sanctioning body said on Monday the winner will have a chance to its title later this year.
Alvarez, who cruised to a wide points win over fellow Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez in May, admitted he did not know who WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) was when the Briton addressed him at the media conference.
Saunders, who asked Canelo why he had not fought Golovkin sooner, holds the only world middleweight title not in Golovkin’s hands and wants to face the winner of the Sept 16 showdown.
“I didn’t even recognize him,” Alvarez said.
“He needs to come down in weight if he wants to fight one of us. I’ve never really watched him or studied him before, but after seeing, I know I could beat him with one hand tied behind my back and with my eyes closed.”
Saunders was linked to fighting Golovkin in his homeland of Kazakhstan on June 10, but the fight never happened.
“He talks too much, but he’s not a promoter,” Golovkin said.
“I told my promoter, Tom Leoffler, that I wanted this (Saunders) fight for June 10 but he said he wasn’t ready. He has said no twice and he has wasted my time. I said I’m ready for this fight in Kazakhstan but he said no again, so I turned my focus to Canelo.”