Golovkin won’t be permanently moving to 168 after Chavez Jr. bout

By Boxing News - 03/29/2014 - Comments

golovkin14By Dan Ambrose: Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KO’s) will be moving up to 168 to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-1-1, 32 KO’s) for just this one fight on July 19th, and it won’t be a permanent move for Golovkin in staying at this weight, says his promoter Tom Loeffer. The Chavez Jr vs. Golovkin bout will be on HBO pay per view, if the two sides can agree to the contract details. Right now, they’re still working out the contract deal, but it’s very likely the fight will take place because both fighters want the bout, as do their promoters at K2 and Top Rank.

“He’s [Golovkin] clearly going to continue to campaign in the middleweight division, but getting a fight with Chavez Jr. is one of the biggest fights that we could have on our radar,” Loeffer said to Fighthype. “And in order to get that opportunity to fight Chavez, there is a lot of concessions that we would have to make and weight was one of them.”

It’s not a big deal for Golovkin to move up in weight to take the fight with Chavez Jr., but what is a big deal potentially is how high Chavez Jr. will rehydrate after the two fighters weigh-in the day before the bout on July 18th. If Chavez Jr. balloons up to 200lbs after making 168, then Golovkin will be facing someone 30lbs heavier than him.

Golovkin never weighs more than 170lbs for his fights, and he’s obviously not going to be putting on additional weight for this due to the problems it causes a fighter’s body when you have to take that weight off. But Chavez Jr. is likely going to rehydrate into the 190s, and that’s a given. The only thing you don’t know is if he’s going to get as high as 200. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens, and Golovkin ends up looking like a little kid next to the heavyweight-sized Chavez Jr. for this fight.

You can’t blame Golovkin for not wanting to stick around in the super middleweight division if he beats Chavez Jr., because if he stays at 168, guys like Carl Froch and Andre Ward will be calling him out 24/7 for a fight, and that would be tough on Golokvin to fight someone who is actually good in the weight class. I don’t see Chavez Jr. as being a good super middleweight. He’s in that division, but he’s not in the same class as Froch and Ward. Chavez Jr. would likely lose to some of the contenders at 168 like George Groves and James DeGale.

Chavez Jr. vs. Golokvin might end up being like a circus sideshow bout, because Chavez Jr. isn’t champion at 168, and he’s just a former WBC middleweight title holder, who was able to win the title after the World Boxing Council stripped Sergio Martinez and basically gave it to him by having him fight little known German based fighter Sebastian Zbik in 2011. Had Chavez Jr. had to fight Sergio for the title in 2011, he’d have beaten.



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