Pondering Floyd’s Next, and Golovkin’s Chances Vs. Mayweather

You must give trainer Abel Sanchez props. He’s so confident of his charge, Gennady Golovkin, that he doesn’t engage in subterfuge of false humility when asked about what could come down the line for the Kazakh banger in the near future.

Want confidence? He’s told me he likes Golovkin, gloving up on HBO on Nov. 2 in NYC versus Curtis Stevens, to be right there with a prime Marvin Hagler if we had a time machine app.

That’s just fantasy talk, though.

Let’s get back to reality, and, lol, speculation, about what’s next for Floyd. Team Mayweather is maintaining that their guy is such a potent A side that whoever he chooses to be his be B side, the fight will be an event, a mega attraction. True enough; I do believe that we’ve seen Mayweathers’ popularity move into a new realm with his win over Canelo. I mean, he was on MSNBC, for crying out loud…and Comedy Central…and Bloomberg…and Kelly and Michael…etc etc. Boxers, it goes without saying, don’t find themselves booked on these programs often, if ever. However…I do think that Canelo was an ‘A level’ B side, and those are unicorns these days. Who that you have heard mentioned as future Floyd dance partner could approach that sort of promotional potential? Pacquiao? Yes. But as long as he’s with Bob Arum, I don’t see Floyd giving Bob a piece of his pie.

Amir Khan? You saw the response on social media to the Mayweather-Khan trial ballon. Not kind…

Danny Garcia? The upset kid special, that has promise, yes.

Who else? Sergio Martinez?

Promoter Lou DiBella is hot on the trail of making a Sergio-Miguel Cotto bout; he told me he’d get that signed, sealed and delivered in five minutes if given the all clear. Sergio isn’t now in the Floyd mix.

Andre Ward at a drained 162, nah, not gonna happen.

Adrien Broner, gonna happen, but not in the next two fights, I don’t think.

Keith Thurman? Maybe in the fourth fight of the deal, or fifth.

Tim Bradley…not if he’s attached to Arum.

Juan Manuel? What, he’d do better this time, because he’s drinking less pee and taking better supplements? Nah.

Victor Ortiz rematch? Maybe if Victor rips off a few nasty KOs, and proves he’s all in.

Cotto? What, he’s gonna do better this time? Maybe, with the Freddie angle as a sweet subplot, but only if he declares himself a free agent from Top Rank again.

What about Gennady? You guys seem to like his chances as much as anyones’ in the 147-160 space. You know the kid wants the fight; he’s said he’ll sign to meet Godzilla if the fight is offered. Here’s what his trainer, Abel Sanchez, the guy who told me Gennady would be right there with Marvin Haggler in his prime, said about a Mayweather-Golovkin scrap.

“I don’t think Floyd is scared of Gennady,” Sanchez said. “He’s a helluva businessman, and he understands that $40 million is not really easily attainable with anybody but Golovkin in a couple fights. If Gennady gets three KOs, spectacular ones, people are going to want that fight. Danny Garcia doesn’t command that, Khan doesn’t and there’s nobody on the horizon.”

And Gennady is aligned with HBO, and Mayweather….isn’t. Isn’t that a humongous roadblock?

“They can make it happen, like Don King and Bob Arum did,” he said. “This is a business, and business if business.”

Just something to ponder until fight night, and we get to traffic in reality, and see if Bradley is faded and the Provodnikov trauma left scarring, or if Marquez’ early woes against Pacman early in fight four were a harbinger of a full-on decline.

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