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Bob Arum: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. turned down ‘crazy’ offer to face Gennady Golovkin

Fighters Network
08
May

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. turned down what Top Rank Promotions CEO Bob Arum called "a crazy, unbelievable offer" to face WBA middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin in a non-title, 168-pound bout, one inclusive of two fights within the terms of the existing contract, the 82-year-old promoter told RingTV.com.
 
After the 28-year-old Chavez (48-1-1, 32 knockouts) declined to sign the agreement, Arum said Top Rank put a single-bout offer on the table that he characterized as "still better than what Golovkin accepted for the fight."

The fight was being targeted for HBO Pay-Per-View on July 19.

"There is no update but the point is that I thought that we made a crazy, unbelievable offer to Chavez for the Golovkin fight. It called for the Golovkin fight to pay him a minimum $7 million, and if he lost that fight, we guaranteed him another fight for $5 million. Now if he beat Golovkin, then we would pay him a minimum for his next fight of $10 million," said Arum, whose Top Rank contract runs through October 2015 with Chavez.

"So we would…do these two fights, and the minimum he would make is $12 million, and if he was successful, $17 million plus. He turned that offer down. So we offered him a one-fight offer at considerably less money but still better than what Golovkin accepted for the fight and he turned that down. So obviously, he doesn't want the fight and we go on with our business."



Chavez's manager, Billy Keane could not be reached for an immediate comment. But Keane told Yahoo!Sports that Top Rank's contract for the pay-per-view bout against Golovkin (29-0, 26 KOs) is for 70 percent less money than Chavez would have been offered if he signed the two-fight extension.

Keane also said that under terms of the new deal, Chavez would not get a share of pay-per-view revenues until after Top Rank had made "millions upon millions of dollars."

"The so-called upside on the pay-per-view did not even kick in until Top Rank made multiple millions of dollars," said Keane, according to ESPN.com. "More than Chavez and likely more than both fighters combined. This is why the fight is no longer happening. It's completely disturbing and completely unfair how these negotiations were."

Arum defended the terms to RingTV.com.

"I know that we presented this to his father and he thought that it was an amazing offer and tried to persuade Julio Jr. to accept," said Arum, "but Julio Jr. didn't accept it. The big problem is that he is apparently being advised by Billy Keane, who has no experience in any of this."

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