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New Golden Boy deal for Spike O’Sullivan – Golovkin/Canelo remains the end-goal

Massive middleweight names Gennady Golovkin and Saul Alvarez remain a big possibility for Gary O’Sullivan – indeed a new deal with American promotional giant Golden Boy could see ‘Spike fight one of the pound-for-pound ranked fighters in December according to his coach and manager Paschal Collins.

In the past few months the Cork middleweight has accepted fights with Danny Jacobs, Alvarez, and Golovkin but has seen all three fall through.

Initially set to face Jacobs in New York this weekend, the Mahon man’s co-promoters Golden Boy blocked this fight.

The U.S. giant wanted to build O’Sullivan as a potential opponent for Canelo – who at that stage was still set to rematch Golovkin in Las Vegas on May 5th. The 33-year-old Leesider would fight the night before and then face Canelo in Las Vegas if the Mexican lost to GGG or in a Texas Stadium if Canelo won and claimed the middleweight throne.

Two failed drug tests for Canelo looked to have messed up O’Sullivan’s plans, but a prize that was more than just consolation reared its head.

Spike became the front-runner to replace Canelo as ‘Golovkin’s May 5th opponent. The Celtic Warrior Gym character agreed the deal Team GGG sent out for potential replacements and looked all set for his ‘dream’ fight.

However, after the offer, which was already substantially less than the purse on offer to fight Canelo in September, was halved, shifting the risk-reward scales significantly, O’Sullivan’s team pulled him out of the running.

No doubt the fighter would have still considered challenging for the IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight crowns, but Collins, Murphys Boxing, and Golden Boy all had other ideas and still plan for O’Sullivan to face one of the superstars in at the end of the year.

“The risk far outweighed the reward. The reward outweighed the risk initially but then the risk started to outweigh the reward,” Pascal Collins told SportsJoe.

“Golden Boy along with Ken Casey from Murphys came along with a better offer. They said to Spike that he was marketable but that he could also beat Golovkin with the right camp.”

“They said we’re not going to prevent you from fighting him but here’s what we can do for you. They came back with an offer within 30 minutes –  in writing.

“Then Golden Boy said here’s what we’re willing to do for you and they came with a three-fight deal. They made us an offer we couldn’t refuse.”

The new deal replaces and improves upon O’Sullivan’s original four-fight TV deal with the promoter – which he kicked off with a stunning upset knockout win over Antoine Douglas in December. The first fight of his new contract takes place next Friday [May 4th] at the StubHub Centre just outside Los Angeles.

Another fight would then come in the late Summer or early Autumn before, all going well, a huge fight with Golovkin or Canelo.

Collins outlined how “we can still fight Canelo or Golovkin because the third fight [of the deal] is going to be to face the winner of that rematch.

“It’ll probably be December if it’s Golovkin or probably next April or May if it’s Canelo,” Collins added before suggesting O’Sullivan’s disappointment is being offset by a big financial windfall.

“We know what deal we have, we can’t disclose it right now, but it’s a three-fight deal. Financially, he can earn more money than some world champions have earned in the last two years for his next three fights. That’s how much they [Golden Boy] want to market him because it’s not always about being a world champion.”

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