Gennady Golovkin Issued Wednesday Deadline To Accept Canelo Alvarez Fight

Unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin has been issued a firm deadline of Wednesday 12 p.m. PDT (3 p.m. EDT) to accept a fight with Canelo Alvarez for Sept. 15 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Canelo's promoters, Golden Boy Promotions, issued the deadline Tuesday with president Eric Gomez claiming if a deal was not accepted, they would proceed to have a fight with Daniel Jacobs on that date instead.

"This is final. We’ve been through everything. We’ve been through the hoops, the monkey bars, the slides. No more playing games," Gomez told ESPN. "He has until noon to accept or walk away. If he walks away, good luck to him."

Golovkin and Canelo fought to a controversial split-decision draw last year and were expected to fight again in September after the latter had to withdraw from their May rematch due to a six-month suspension following failed drug tests from February.

The initial proposed deal was a 65-35 split of the event in favor of Canelo due to him being the bigger draw despite having no titles. However, following the Mexican's failed drug tests, "GGG" demanded an even 50-50 split.

"All Gennady came back with is that, 'I just want a fair split, I want a 50-50 split. I’m the champion,'" Golovkin's promoter Tom Loeffler said last month. "We made a lot of concessions for the first fight, was a very low percentage for Gennady. We made a lot of concessions for the rematch after Gennady proved his value. "

"But Canelo, for whatever reason, was insisting on still having a huge advantage. … It was 65-35 percent for the rematch and Gennady thinks that’s just not fair. Taking 35 percent as the champion is just not fair."

According to ESPN, Golden Boy upped their offer to 60-40 with Golovkin later countering at 55-45. Gomez then revealed the final offer is a 57½-42½ split in favor of Canelo which would be a significant boost for the unbeaten Kazakh, especially as Golden Boy owner Oscar de la Hoya claimed earlier that even with a 65-35 split, Golovkin could make over a $20 million payday.

Should Golovkin accept the deal, he would only be defending his World Boxing Association, World Boxing Council and International Boxing Organization middleweight titles this time, as he was stripped of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title earlier this month.

The 36-year-old successfully defended his titles in May against Vanes Martirosyan but later failed to agree to fight terms with his mandatory opponent Sergiy Derevyanchenko within the IBF's deadline — meaning his last win wasn't an IBF title defense.

"It comes as a complete shock that the IBF would make a ruling far beyond what the Derevyanchenko side was asking for," Loeffler said at the time. "They weren't asking for him to be stripped. They were asking to have their shot at the IBF title next, but they never asked for him to be stripped."

"In light of this ruling, I think the IBF has completely mistreated GGG. It is the worst treatment they have ever shown any unified champion in their history. Gennady is disappointed in the ruling," he added.