The face of boxing in New York could be switching venues to make way for another up and coming giant.
According to the New York Daily News, Gennady Golovkin could be calling Madison Square Garden home for the majority of his remaining fights.
But he has no shortage of venues competing for his services – and that includes the Madison Square Garden Company, which will host Golovkin for the fourth time since 2013 when the baby-faced knockout artist faces Willie Monroe Jr. Saturday on HBO at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., which the Garden acquired in 2012 and has spent millions to restore.
His three other fights have been at MSG in the city.
“We have a great relationship with both Gennady and Tom Loeffler,” Joel Fisher, executive vice president of MSG Sports said in an emailed statement to the Daily News. “He is the sports fastest rising star.”
It’s that cozy relationship with the Garden that compelled Golovkin promoter, Loeffler of K2 Promotions, to suggest that Golovkin (32-0, 29 knockouts) could soon become the new face of MSG boxing in the same way that Cotto once made the Garden a second home.
“That looks like the direction that it’s heading,” Loeffler told the News of making the Garden’s various properties his new hub, with Golovkin, the WBA middleweight champion, bouncing between New York and California depending on the opponent. “I know they definitely want Gennady to continue to come back.”
Such a scenario could see Miguel Cotto then moving his attractions to the Barclays Center. Cotto — now formally aligned with Roc Nation — has been a Garden staple for years.
That could all change.
Yormark was more effusive about his desire to make Barclays Center the new home of Cotto, who is promoted by Roc Nation Sports, a company whose president is Yormark’s twin brother, Michael.
With Miguel Cotto, 34, fighting for the first time at Barclays Center on June 6 against Daniel Geale, an opportunity exists to convert Cotto, the WBC middleweight champion, from a Garden loyalist to a Barclays’ boxer, Yormark believes.
“Listen, we were thrilled when my brother called me and said we’d love to come to the Barclays Center,” Yormark told the News. “Cotto has historically called MSG his home. But he was willing to do something different this time and for us it was validation that we’re doing some good things over here. Hopefully, they have a great experience and Cotto will want to fight here again and want to call Barclays his home. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure he has a great experience.”
Cotto has fought at the Garden nine times previously, including last June when he destroyed former middleweight champ Sergio Martinez.