World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman is crossing his fingers that deal will be reached between the camps of IBF, WBA, WBC, IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
The two sides had been negotiating for several weeks to finalize a deal for a planned rematch on September 15th in Las Vegas.
Last week, Canelo's handlers walked away from the discussions after rejected a new set of financial demands from Golovkin.
The two boxers were set to fight each other on May 5th at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena.
But the contest fell out after Canelo tested positive for clenbuterol and was later suspended for six months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Canelo's will be cleared to fight by August 17th and he's plans to fight on September 15 - with or without Golovkin.
At the moment, the two sides are deadlocked on the financial split.
Canelo is standing firm on a 65-35 split, while Golovkin wants a even 50-50.
The split of 65-35 was part of the agreed upon terms for their date in May, but Golovkin feels he's entitled to a higher split - because Canelo's testing issues were the sole cause of their initial date falling apart.
In the opinion of Sulaiman, Golovkin should accept the terms in order to give the public the fight they want most.
"There's no way to understand why the fight is not signed. Everything is set for it to take place in September. I invite both camps to bury the hatchet and make the deal," Sulaiman said.
"I think Gennady Golovkin should understand that he has the power to make the fight happen and show everyone in the ring, just who is the best. Everyone wants to see the rematch because their first fight was great. And the world deserves to see the second fight."
The first fight took place back in September of 2017, and saw both fighters battle to a controversial twelve round split draw.
2023-10-21 03:25:14
