By Norm Frauenheim-
A shuffle the top of the marquee begins to unfold, almost like a political campaign, in an inevitable transition put into motion by Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao. Despite record-setting revenue, the fight was an artistic flop, yet a sign that the business is moving on in search of new stars.
They’re there, on a list topped by Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez, Terence Crawford and Roman Gonzalez. A preliminary, yet intriguing move takes place Saturday in the Miguel Cotto-Daniel Geale fight at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The HBO-televised bout sets the table.
If Cotto – a prominent face in the Mayweather-Pacquiao generation — wins, it looks as if he’ll face Alvarez for perhaps his last big payday in another chapter in the rich Puerto Rican–Mexican tradition. If Cotto loses, then maybe Golovkin bypasses Carl Froch and goes straight to an anticipated date with Canelo in a bout sure to include Fight-of-the-Year hype.
It’s no coincidence, perhaps, that Golovkin plans to be at ringside for Cotto-Geale. He knocked out Geale. He wants Cotto’s version of the middleweight belt. Of all the potential contenders for the pound-for-pound office about to be vacated by Mayweather, Golovkin looks like the front-runner, both in ring skill and popular appeal.
If there were an election among Mexican fans in Los Angeles, Golovkin, a Kazak, would get a lot of votes. In his last two bouts in LA, the crowd has been filled with people wearing T-shirts and campaign-style button that said: Mexicans for GGG.
There’s A-side leverage in that kind of popularity. At some point, it’s bound to bring GGG out the most-feared category and into a powerful bargaining position. Ducking GGG will soon become a bad business move, especially with the Mayweather-Pacquiao generation at the brink of retirement.
Andre Ward looms as another potential candidate in the race to succeed Mayweather. He’s not as likable as Golovkin. But he might be skilled enough to beat him. We’ll begin to see soon enough. In his first fight since November 16, 2013, Ward faces Paul Smith on June 20 in hometown Oakland.
Meanwhile, don’t be surprised if this race gets as crowded as the one with Republicans running for president. There’s talk that master-tactician Mikey Garcia, an unbeaten super-featherweight at 34-0, is preparing to come back. He hasn’t fought since January 25, 2014.
There’s also Deontay Wilder, the first American with a heavyweight belt since Shannon Briggs, who knocked out Sergei Liakhovich for the WBO title in 2006 and stalking Wladimir Klitschko ever since.
Wilder, likable and probably a couple fights away from seriously challenging Klitschko, has boldly declared his candidacy. Wilder likes to talk and he said a lot in a conference call Wednesday for his first title defense June 13 against unknown Eric Molina in Birmingham, Ala. Wilder said he can be a bigger star than Mayweather.
“Most definitely, and I say that with high confidence because the heavyweight division is the cream of the crop in the first place,’’ said Wilder, the WBC champion. “The things that I bring, the charisma, the excitement, the personality that I have, everything about me is all me. It’s totally me.
“Some guys, when they have cameras in their face, they presume to be a certain type of person or the persona about them changes. When the camera is off, they’re a totally different person. I don’t have split personalities. I’m not a fake person. Everything about me is real. Everything you see on (Showtime) All-Access is me. Nothing is scripted, nothing is planned up, nothing.’’
Nothing, other than being next.
