If you ask Gennady Golovkin why he was so adamant on demanding a 50-50 purse split for his rematch against Canelo Alvarez, the unified WBA and WBC middleweight champion said it had less to do with money and more with the principle.
During a meeting with the media in Los Angeles, Golovkin said demanding a 50-50 split was due to Alvarez testing positive for a banned substance which postponed their original May 5 fight date and then Alvarez demanding the lion's share of the purse afterwards. In their first encounter last year, Golovkin only took 30 percent of the purse split, but now given the circumstances, he felt like he was owed more of the percentage.
Eventually, the rematch was agreed upon with the two set to face each other on September 15 in Las Vegas. The purse split appears to be a 55-45 split in favor of Alvarez with that split being the absolute lowest Golovkin was willing to take.
"It was the principle of the matter, 45 percent for me, not 35 or 42.5, just 45," Golovkin said. "Good deal, very happy. My original demand was 50-50, but after some thought I understood that 55-45 was good deserving number for both of us and if it didn't happen we were ready to move on."
It was also at that meeting where Golovkin was handed the Ring Magazine Pound-for-Pound title given to the best pound-for-pound boxer in the Ring's official rankings. Ring Magazine also recently stripped Alvarez of his middleweight title after his February positive test for clenbuterol.
The rematch between Alvarez and Golovkin will headline an HBO pay-per-view from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, site of the first fight between the two, which ended in a split draw.
