Golovkin wants Hopkins in June

By Boxing News - 03/11/2013 - Comments

golovkin200By Dan Ambrose: If IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (25-0, 22 KO’s) he might want to look in the direction of unbeaten WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (25-0, 22 KO’s), who says he’s willing to fight Hopkins in June, according to Steve Kim. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler says Golovkin will face Hopkins in June at 175 without a catchweight.

Golovkin, 30, has to get through his fight at the end of the month against Nobuhiro Ishida (24-8-2, 9 KO’s) on March 30th at the Salle des etoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco. If Golovkin can get past Ishida with a win and without any injuries then there’s no reason why Golovkin couldn’t be ready to face the 48-year-old Hopkins for his IBF light heavyweight title in June at the full weight for the 175 lb. class.

Golovkin, 5’10”, would be moving up two weight divisions to take the fight. However, it’s not as big a deal as one might think, as Golovkin routinely spars with light heavyweights and beats them up in sparring because he’s too hard on middleweights.

Hopkins, 6’1”, started out as a middleweight and didn’t move up to light heavyweight until he was 41-years-old, so it’s not as if Hopkins has been fighting at 175 for his entire career. He spent the vast majority of his career at 160.

Hopkins would have a three inch height advantage over Golovkin and likely a similar amount in reach. However, this would still be a really tough fight for Hopkins because Golovkin is a smart fighter and he’d be a lot more of a problem for Hopkins than Tavoris Cloud, who fought a really poor fight last Saturday night in losing his IBF title to Hopkins.

Golovkin would have a good chance of beating Hopkins if he could get the fight due to his huge power and accuracy. It would be a tough fight for Hopkins because he hasn’t faced any big power punchers for a long time since he beat a limited Kelly Pavlik five years ago. Golovkin is a lot more advanced than Hopkins in the skills department, and he’d give Hopkins problems.

It’s doubtful Hopkins would agree to a fight with Golovkin. Hopkins says he’s interested in possibly facing WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly in a unification fight or maybe fighting one of the top super middleweights. Golovkin likely doesn’t have a big enough name to lure Hopkins into accepting a fight with him.



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