By: Sean Crose
“If the guys want to make the fight,” promoter Tom Loeffler told Boxing Insider’s Jeandra LeBeauf, “then there’s a way to do it. I’m easiest promoter to work with.” Loeffler was promoting the December 9th Orlando Salido-Miguel Roman card, which will be aired live on HBO from the Mandalay Bay in Vegas. “Whenever you can put on two Mexican warriors,” said Loeffler, “that’s a type of fight that the fans get excited for.” While admitting that neither Salido nor Roman were crème de la crème caliber boxers, the promoter claimed that their battle “has fight of the year written all over it.”
Loeffler also spoke of the hoped for “Superfly II” card. The original “Superfly,” which went down at the Stub Hub Center in California last September, was a huge success and Loeffler hopes to replicate it. “That was really one of the most exciting shows we ever worked on,” Loeffler said fondly of the original card. “Naturally it (“Superfly II”) would be (Sisraket Sor) Rungvisai versus (Juan Francisco), Estrada,” he stated, as Rungvisai destroyed Roman Gonzalez in the original “Superfly” while Estrada bested Carlos Cuadras.
“Hopefully, we can do something with (Naoya) Inoue,” he said, adding that when it comes to Gonzalez, “the doors always open for him.” Loeffler was clearly happy with the superflyweight division in general. “You can really mix and match the fighters,” he said. “Were targeting February (for ‘Superfly II’).” Yet Loeffler clearly was willing to speak of a variety of subject with LeBeauf. “I have a good relationship with Eddie,” he said in reference to British super promoter Eddie Hearn. “He delivered Kell Brook (who faced Loeffler’s own Gennady Golovkin last year), which was a tremendous fight.” Loeffler admitted, however, that he was upset Golovkin never got to face Hearn’s star at the time, Carl Froch. “That’s one fight that I wish we could have done,” Loeffler said.
Talk of course turned to the middleweight division, where a rematch between Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez for divisional supremacy is widely desired by fans. “Clearly from the GGG side, we’re committed to making the rematch,” he stated. Loeffler also quoted Golovkin, who reportedly claimed that: “If Canelo says he’s a champion, then he’s got to fight me.” Golovkin, after all, is still king of the division. Fellow middleweight titlist Billy Joe Saunders likewise came up. Loeffler was clearly unimpressed the first time there were talks of the Englishman facing Golovkin. Now, however, with Saunders showing a willingness to face hard hitting David Lemieux, Loeffler thinks a showdown with Saunders is a possibility.
First, however, comes Canelo-GGG II. “ That’s really the biggest fight that can be made in the sport of boxing,” said Loeffler. “I think both Gennady and Canelo owe the fans the rematch.”
