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GGG-Lemieux? What else? Golden Boy’s Eric Gomez lays it all out

Fighters Network
22
Jul
Photo credit: Peter McCabe/AFP/Getty Images

Photo credit: Peter McCabe/AFP/Getty Images

They are still in deciding mode, regarding the next best step for the bomber from Montreal, David Lemieux, he of the pleasantly symmetrical face and unpleasantly heavy hands, for most of the folks he’s stepped in with.
The fighter, promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, along with Canadian Camille Estephan, has been resurgent after deciding to dig down, get beyond serious about training and committing to the sport. He went after Hassan N’Dam, one of the most resolute battlers in the sport, from the opening bell, and dropped him four times in his last outing, leaving fight fans that much more curious about his next foe. Will it be Gennady Golovkin, in a bombs-away special, which would be one of the handful of most anticipated scraps of the year, from those who unreservedly adore the attacking sorts who see merit in the savage side of the Sweet Science more than looking to avoid being hit first and foremost?

I checked in with Golden Boy executive Eric Gomez for an update of where Lemieux next stands.

“We’re still trying to decide, looking at all options,” he told me. “He should get paid; we have a couple options we’re looking at. We have been approached by [Golovkin promoter] Tom Loeffler, but we haven’t decided. The fight excites me, and all of us, because I came at it from a fan perspective…We’re meeting later this week, a conference call, to go over all the options.”

While I had Gomez, I asked him about this period of time, a fertile time, it seems, for Golden Boy. He said, echoing Miguel Cotto adviser Gaby Penagaricano, that a deal to put together a Canelo Alvarez (Golden Boy) vs. Miguel Cotto (Roc Nation Sports) fight is real close to being completed. That, too, is in the tiny handful of most anticipated bouts of the year and might be most anticipated for a healthy portion of pugilism fans.



Gomez also referenced another scrap, almost signed and sealed, and specifics of which could drop soon: a Lucas Matthysse versus Viktor Postol match-up. Golden Boy’s Matthysse is cut from the cloth boss Oscar De La Hoya digs; he delights in rumbling, looks to give fans their money’s worth and isn’t thinking like a businessman first, boxer second. “We have a deal in place for Matthysse-Postol,” Gomez said. That one will unspool at StubHub Center and on HBO, we presume, but deets, he said, have to be ironed out with the TV side.

October 3 is the working date, with the venue on hold for that event.

Gomez also said he’s looking at the fallout from the recent Tim Bradley-Jessie Vargas fight and is quite curious how the WBO might rule, being its 147-pound belt was up for grabs and snagged by Bradley, in slightly controversial fashion. Vargas had him hurt in the 12th round but lost an opportunity for a final furious flurry when ref Pat Russell halted the fight early, mistaking the 10-second warning for the end-of-round bell. Gomez hopes for a decision from the WBO this week and this affects Golden Boy because its guy, Brooklyner Sadam Ali, is ranked No. 1 at 140 by that body.

“He’s ready for the fight, he wants a title fight,” Gomez said of the 22-0 New Yorker.

 

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