By Dan Ambrose: Boxingnews24.com has selected WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) as the Fighter of The Year for 2014.
We realize that ESPN selected Terence Crawford as Fighter of The Year for his wins over Ricky Burns, Raymundo Beltran and Yuriorkis Gamboa, but only one of those fights was entertaining and that was largely due to Gamboa, not Crawford pushing the fight. Crawford’s wins over Beltran and Burns were incredibly boring to watch, and it was like watching paint dry. For that reason, we couldn’t give Crawford Fighter of the Year. His performances were simply too boring.
In terms of excitement, Golovkin proved himself to be far, far above the likes of Crawford in 2014. This is why Golovkin was selected.
Golovkin had impressive knockout victories over Marco Antonio Rubio, Daniel Geale and Osumanu Adama in 2014. While those aren’t the greatest fighters in the middleweight division, they were still more than good enough for Golovkin to get the Fighter of the Year pick in 2014 by Boxingnews24.com. Golovkin totally annihilated those three fighters in knocking them out.
It wasn’t like watching Crawford jab and counter punch his way to a dull decision. In Golovkin’s case, he went out and totally destroyed his opponents. He wasn’t afraid to get hit and didn’t run around the ring trying to avoid exchanges. Golovkin went right after Rubio, Geale and Adama to take them apart in exciting fights from start to finish.
Golovkin right now is heading towards super stardom. More than other fighter, Golovkin is quickly becoming the most exciting fighter in the sport of boxing right now. If he can keep winning in 2015 with impressive knockouts, it’s only a matter of time before he becomes a pay-per-view star.
Golovkin doesn’t have the advantage of having an entire country backing him like Manny Pacquiao and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Golovkin is winning over fans based on his exciting performances rather than having fans simply back him because they come from the same country as him.
Golovkin will be fighting the tough as nails Martin Murray (29-1-1, 12 KOs) on February 21st at the Salle des etoiles, Monte Carlo, Monaco. If Golovkin can destroy Murray then that will be a huge accomplishment because Murray tends to fight defensively rather than offensively in his fights.
Murray doesn’t like to get hit, so he covers up a lot and moves constantly. It won’t be easy for Golovkin to knock this guy out, but if he can it’ll say a lot about the power and the talent that Golovkin has going for him.
With a win over Murray, Golovkin is hoping he can get the winner of the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto fight. If the winner of that fight opts to avoid Golovkin by vacating, then it’s be a clear sign that they don’t see themselves in the same league as the talented Kazakhstan fighter.
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