After Gennady Golovkin forced Curtis Stevens’ corner to call the fight at the end of the 8th round, questions arose, mainly where does Gennady go next? He sold out the Garden Theatre and his numbers on HBO have gotten much better since his 1st appearance on HBO last year. In catching up with Tom Loeffler, the main man at K2 Promotions, it’s clear, the plan is to be active, with or without HBO.
On Gennady’s Return Date:
“February 1st in Monte Carlo. We don’t have the opponents finalized, but we’re talking to some people. We’re also talking to HBO to televise it. I think it’s been a break out year for Gennady. I think he’s fighter of the year for 2013. He’s had 4 knock out wins, he’s had 4 dominant victories against quality opposition. I think his performance inside and outside the ring; yes he’s 2013 fighter of the year.”
On Being Nervous Of Stevens:
“I wasn’t hesitant; we were a little bit surprised of how durable Curtis is. He took some big punches and was a durable guy.”
On Why Other Middleweights Should Step Up and Fight GGG:
“He keeps fighting, he keeps defending his title. As of right now, it’s been the biggest name we’ve been able to get in the ring. Macklin and Stevens have got a lot of money to get into the ring with him. I’d say Golovkin’s opponents are getting paid more than other of the middleweight’s opponents. Curtis got more than Bryan Vera, Stevens got paid and more than Darren Barker got paid to fight Daniel Geale. There’s a financial incentive to fight GGG.”
Moving To 168 To Fight Froch and Ward
“It depends; it’s easy to say Carl Froch, what’s going to be involved with it in order for Gennady to move to 168, it has to be a compelling fight. I think Froch is a compelling fight. Ward is a compelling fight. I think there are other details there. You know Andre Ward had an issue making the fight with Edwin Rodriguez. So I don’t know depends on how we can work out the details, I know Andre would never come down to 160, so it would be Gennady that have to move to 168, we see if we can work out those details, I know HBO wants to make a big fight. We’ll keep moving in that direction.”
On The Questions Of Mayweather:
“Abel said he can make 154, just needs a longer time to train for it. We’re not calling out Floyd Mayweather, when people ask you about him, its yes. If the question is posed to us, its yes, we’re willing to fight him. It doesn’t mean we’re calling him out or don’t respect Floyd, but we’d fight him. Abel thinks Gennady is the only guy that can beat Mayweather. Ii think Sergio Martinez still wants to prove he’s the middleweight champion if he fights Cotto and wins; it’s the most realistic fight out there.”
On The Growth of The Star That Is GGG
“HBO has been great in supportive of Gennady, the goal was to sell out the theatre and that’s what he did right now. I think the goal is right now to make the bigger fights and if there’s an opportunity to make one then yes we’ll look into one. The Biggest TV outlets in the world showed this fight. HBO here, Sky Sports in England, Polsak in Poland, it was the first time Sat1 which is one of the network TVs in Germany, first time they showed a live fight from the US, I think it’s clear, he’s a star”
