HBO discussions: Gennady Golovkin vs James Kirkland, April 26th

After the ratings that Kirkland got, he would be my first choice too, if I was HBO. Who wouldn't tune in to watch the fight, despite its meaningfulness? Someone's getting KTFO!

 

That's a bad career move for Kirkland unless he's desperate for quick cash. Remember James alienated himself from GB pretty bad and they hold all the pieces at 154. Still James brings ratings and just fighting midlevel will get him noticed.

Don't like it for Golovkin either. Kirkland's lost a lot of his momentum and a violent KO over Kirkland really doesn't do much more than one over Adama.

 

well, Golovkin's manager did respond to Geale by saying he could get more popular Americans for the April fight. to ko kirkland would add to triple g's mystique with the casual fan but not impress the hard core.

edit: no link, i got it from another site:

Oleg Herman, Manager of GGG:
- I heard about what Show wanted, but I have a question: what puts him in a place to demand from GGG more than what Geale was paid when he was a champion and fought Barker? Geale was interesting only because he had an IBF belt. Now he is nobody. He doesn't sell tickets, doesn't attract audience. The last audience saw him when he lost. Why is he so interesting?

We have to grow further and we don't want to overpay Geale. There are other good and more popular fighters in the US that would agree to fight for the same amount of money. If he wants Sturm in the end, then good luck as he wont be paid big money there as well and Sturm being a coward he is will hold the belt in his hometown without the risk of losing it.

We offered Geale to fight 1feb in Monaco for a purse bigger than he got against Barker but he passed on it. Meaning he has no belt now and still we offered more $.

 

They really ought to offer more- they're getting GGG at a significant discount to what they pay Andre for slightly lower ratings (Andre got $1.9 million vs Rodriguez, GGG got $400k for Stevens), and Kirkland was just in the single highest rated fight last weekend against Tapia (better than Paulie-Zab).

 

ya this. This fight should not take place.

 

GGG in no way needs to wast his time on a bum like Kirkland. He needs to fight the top MWs. He might as well clobber Geale as he will win far more hard core points than bouncing Kirkland off the canvas.

Rafael likes to interject his personal desires into the reality of the sport now and then. It means little.

 

That's interesting, didn't know how much Geale turned down for the MC fight. Now both Murray and Geale are looking a bit exposed at the moment. Hopefully this just makes it easier to make the fights with these two in April and July.

 

i agree but disregarding reputation Kirkland has a million to one chance to knockout triple G. Geale hasn't a prayer of winning the fight in any manner. not that that's a valid reason to choose kirkland over geale, i'd rather see him beat a somewhat respected middleweight too, but just sayin.

 

The Mandigoe Warrior beats the dog **** out of that white boy.

 

Nooo they cant sacrifice Kirkland like this

Golovkin should come down to 154 then he will be in the mix and can hope for a Floyd fight

 

:rofl:rofl:rofl...........:dead

 

It's really not on K2. The way it typically works is HBO will only greenlight certain names and at certain prices.

As a fighter's TV ratings increase, so will the amount of money a network is willing to invest in them of the annual fight budget. Bad ratings mean lower budgets, a shorter leash (if the network wants to take another chance), or complete dismissal.

For a fighter like GGG, they weren't going to invest much to start - there aren't many Kazakhs here, nor is there a history of Kazakh fighters being great pros or generating big ratings. That's why it was crucial that GGG look great in his fights.

In a year, his ratings have nearly quadrupled and are better than P4P U.S. based talents that networks have spent much more time and money promoting. It's time for K2 to renegotiate for better terms.

That's also why Rigo's bad ratings hurt him so much. Promoters hate to front big money of their own; they rely on what the networks pay for their biggest fights and that's what will dictate what opponents they can afford. There are other revenue generators (like live-gate sales), but even that's not going to help if the network doesn't approve of the opponent. In a sense, the networks are pseudo-promoters themselves.

 

Easy fight for GGG. There's a good chance it will happen as these types of opponents are what HBO feeds their propective cash cows.

Kirkland's got a China glass jaw for God's sake, he's going to crumble with even the wind brush from GGG's missed punch.:!:

 

Kirkland has absolutely no fear of anyone, so I bet he'd be up for it.

Golovkin would knock him out in the first round, however. (I'm a big Kirkland fan)

 

Fair enough. I'm still not sold on K2's ability to eventually make big fights for the future though. Obviously have to wait and see, but how long will it take it will take is a big question.