Is Golovkin overrated?

By Niall Kaye - 02/14/2015 - Comments

golovkinBy Niall Kaye: Ever since our sports official inception around the year 1691 and through subsequent centuries, fans have had a voyeuristic obsession with power punchers. Think Jack Dempsey, Ernie Shavers and most notably Tyson, these men were amongst the most exciting, exhilarating and enigmatic figures the sport has seen, and their attraction was impelled exclusively by the devastating power they possessed in their fists.

But there was always a problem with pure power punchers: they are historically one dimensional, and so are beatable. In the case of WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs), the aforementioned theory stands to be proven. But I must speak directly. I fear this theory will be proven sooner rather than later.

I hope you don’t construe my directness as unkindness, nor bias. Golovkin, is of yet, untested. He is able to emphatically beat fighters who are fearful of his power, who freeze on the night and who are caught up in the hype which he has induced. These fighters have expected to be beaten, and so were dispatched accordingly.

Golovkin is 32 years old. This very fact impediments my belief that he will go on to achieve incredible feats in the coming years, as has been so rigorously suggested by his infatuated fans. For if he was 24, 25, this would be cause for more optimism. Instead, he faces another 5 years, maximum, at a physical platform whereby he is able to competitively fight. I understand this infatuation: I too have experienced the tedium of the supremacy of pure boxers, who have monopolized boxing and who beat all comers- and frustratingly so- I too lust for an exciting fighter, such as Golovkin to upset the status quo and rule boxing for years to come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXmOYYzqHM

Golovkin is not this fighter.

Yes, he punches hard- He is able to knock out middleweights with ease it seems, but this trend will not continue if he moves up to super middleweight. Despite suggestions that he is a small middleweight, in his last fight, he weighed in at 172 pounds on fight night- the same as Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez normally does , who incurs uninhibited condemnation for it, and is labeled as an enormous light middleweight( although it seems he has left this division, and now officially campaigns at Middleweight, 155). To achieve the biggest fights, Golovkin must move up to 168 and he must fight the likes of Carl Froch, who I feel he will beat, not because he is great, but because Froch isn’t.

In fact, I feel Golovkin is able to beat the majority of fighters at 160 and 168, once more, not because he is great, but because the vast majority of these fighters are not. Consider the case of Arthur Abraham, who lost 4 times in the super six to superior fighters, of whom most of which Golovkin is superior to. Another example is Sakio Bika, a former incumbent of the WBC world title whose arduous reign was extraordinary at best, considering his limited skills and his losses to Joe Calzaghe and Andre Ward. This shows how bereft of talent the Super middlewight division really is.

YouTube video

Then comes the matter of Andre ward: An utterly brilliant fighter, who, if he was active, would now surely be a strong candidate for the best P4P fighter in the world. A man who would dominate Golovkin, a man who would expose his deficiencies, which are numerous, and a man who would silence fans who suggest that Golovkin is an unbeatable boogey man of sorts. His name is scarcely brought up amongst Golovkin fans, and for good reason. Golovkin would lose to Ward not because he isn’t good, but because Ward is.

It seems our wait for a world beating power puncher will have to roll on. There is, it seems, always a fighter who is able to beat the popular power puncher, much to our dismay. Golovkin will invariably continue to knock out inferior fighters, until one day he meets a man who does not fear his power, who does not have an intrinsic losing mentality. This man will be Andre Ward.

Whilst I am aware that this article may subject me to some draconian scrutiny in the comments, I do not write to satisfy those of you who are passionate supporters of Golovkin. So please, knock yourself out, and I don’t mean metaphorically.



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