Who can Golovkin fight next?

By Boxing News - 07/29/2014 - Comments

golovkin97464By Thomas Cowan: Gennady “GGG” Golovkin produced another spectacular performance last weekend, destroying Daniel Geale in 3 rounds to defend his WBA middleweight title in style. Geale was a former unified champion and top 6 middleweight, Martin Murray being the non-titleholder that could be ranked above him, but Golovkin beat him easily.

Although Golovkin had previously destroyed Matthew Macklin, who was also a top 10 middleweight at the time, Geale was known for his toughness, but the Australian had no answer to Golovkin’s monstrous power.

Golovkin sold 8,500 tickets at Madison Square Garden, a massive number considering Geale is not well known in USA and Golovkin is not from New York or Puerto Rico, where most massive ticket sellers at the MSG tend to come from. HBO are expecting ratings of over 2 milion and these numbers show he has the potential to be at a star, but at 32, time is not on his side. He needs a big name and needs it now. So, who should he fight. More importantly, who will fight him?

1) Miguel Cotto

While most fans may think Golovkin is the best fighter at 160lbs, WBC/Ring champion Miguel Cotto is the lineal, or true, champion at the weight. Some may say he reached up to pick some low-hanging fruit when he fought 39-year-old Sergio Martinez, who had looked horrible in his last fight against Murray and was coming off multiple sugeries and 14 months of inactivity. However, Cotto was still hugely impressive in stopping Martinez over 10 one-sided rounds. Cotto has made a Hall of Fame career from being the man that will fight anyone. He has fought Mayweather, Pacquiao, Mosley, Antonio Margarito, Paulie Malignaggi, Zab Judah, Joshua Clottey and Austin Trout, all of them at or near their prime. He has been victorious more often than not. Will he fight Golovkin? It should happen, but I doubt Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach will be too keen on the fight and Cotto can make more money fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Cotto vs Golovkin at Madison Square Garden is still a big pay-per-view fight though, and you have to hope Cotto will want to prove he is the best middleweight on the planet. I think there is a chance this could happen but it is more likely Cotto’s team will steer him away from Golovkin.

2) Peter Quillin or Sam Soliman

The other two middleweight titleholders are Sam Soliman (IBF) and Peter Quillin (WBO). While they hold titles, Qullin has looked average in his last two fights against Gabriel Rosado and Lukas Konecny and Soliman is 40-years-old and not too highly rated either. These fights would be more of a sideways step from Geale and Macklin with neither being particularly well known. Quillin fights on Showtime and has shown no interest in fighting Golovkin so that fight is highly unlikely. Soliman has said he is ready to fight Golovkin and since he is coming towards the end of his career and chasing paydays, there’s a good chance he’d take the fight. I think there’s a good chance this fight happens if more high profile options don’t open up.

3) Going up to super middleweight to fight Chavez, Froch or Ward

Although Golovkin has said he is staying at middleweight, most suspect he would move up to super middleweight for a big fight. A HBO PPV fight against Chavez fell through earlier in the year when Chavez was unhappy with the terms of the offer he received from his promoter Bob Arum. Chavez does seem genuinely willing to fight Golovkin so this fight is possible. Outside Mayweather, Pacquiao and heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko,

Golovkin is probably the biggest foreign name in the UK, where IBF champion Carl Froch is from. Froch, like Cotto, has made a career out of fighting anyone, beating Mikkel Kessler, Glen Johnson, Jermain Taylor, Arthur Abraham, Jean Pascal, George Groves, Lucian Bute and Andre Dirrell and unsuccessfully taking on Andre Ward. While this fight wouldn’t give Golovkin the big US exposure he wants, going to England to fight Froch is a big money fight due to Froch’s huge profie in Britain.

However, Chavez and Froch seem more likely to fight eachother in fight that would be PPV on both sides of the Atlantic. Although almost every US fan would rather see Chavez-Golovkin and almost every UK fan would prefer Froch to see fight Golovkin, the fact that Chavez-Froch is a PPV fight in both countries will likely leave Golovkin frozen out.

Some have called for Golovkin to fight Andre Ward, but this is simply not realistic. Neither have the fan base to headline a PPV event, Golovkin needs some more impressive wins and Ward’s cautious style, which most casual fans find boring and his inactivity means he is a million miles away from being a star, even though he has many great wins over Froch, Sakio Bika, Mikkel Kessler and Chad Dawson and is high up in the pound-for-pound rankings. Without PPV, Ward and Golovkin would be looking at earning less than $2 million each and anyone who thinks either would take a fight that risky for that sort of money is delusional.

With Ward and Quillin ruled out, I think there’s a 25% chance Miguel Cotto will step up but a unification fight with Sam Soliman looks more likely. It would be interesting to see how Golovkin deals with Soliman’s awkward style and it would be good for him to get another belt, that is not the fight he needs to become a star.



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