Add to that the fact that Saturday night’s double featuring Gennady Golovkin and Roman Gonzalez is televised on standard HBO and The Forum event is up there as one of the hottest tickets in boxing right now.
As Golovkin prepares to make the fifteenth defense of his WBA middleweight title, having since added the IBO, interim WBC and IBF versions, the big-punching Kazakh will be aiming to upstage his lighter counterpart.
WBC flyweight belt holder Gonzalez, the outstanding star of the lower weights and already a three-weight world champion, is currently recognised as being above ‘GGG’ in the pound for pound rankings, although Golovkin may be able to overhaul the Nicaraguan with a more devastating performance.
Should Golovkin blast out Dominic Wade early and Gonzalez struggle past McWilliams Arroyo, it is conceivable that the 160 pound king could swap places with ‘Chocolatito’ at the helm of the sport.
Both champions are heavy favourites to retain their respective belts, so an upset is unthinkable leading into the double-header, as betting focuses more of the method of victory – rather than whether Wade or Arroyo can pull off a shock.
Tonight represents the third time running that Golovkin and Gonzalez have shared the spotlight on HBO in what is turning out to be one of the shrewdest moves by any sports network in recent times.
Obviously, HBO are ultimately aiming to showcase the pair on PPV at some point and two devastating triumphs in California this weekend should place Golovkin and Gonzalez one step further the big money paychecks.
