By Dan Ambrose: ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas went on a long rant last Friday night in talking about WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s recent 11th round stoppage win over an overmatched Martin Murray (29-2-1, 12 KOs) in their fight in Monte Carlo last week in their fight on February 21st.
The fight was supposed to have been a competitive one in the eyes of some boxing fans, but it turned out to be a one-sided affair with Golovkin chasing an unwilling Murray around the ring for 10 rounds before Golovkin finally caught up to Murray in the 11th and stopped him on his feet.
Atlas wants to see Golovkin face talented fighters, not the mediocre bunch that have been put in front of him his entire career.
Atlas specifically would like to see Golokvin fight New York fighters Peter Quillin and Daniel Jacobs. Atlas thinks those fights would give fans a clear picture of how good or not so good Golovkin is.
“I love Golovkin, but I don’t want to see him with those guys [mediocre opposition] no more unless he fights Quillin or Jacobs, both guys from the New York area,” Atlas said via ESPN. “If he steps up against Froch or Ward; against those kinds of guys then I’ll watch. But please no more against these [Martin Murray] kind of guys. It’s proving nothing. I like Golovkin. I never thought these other guys were monsters, but I want to see what he really is. But you can’t see with these kind of guys…he’s torturing these guys. I don’t want to see it. I want to see him fight guys in contested fights.”
The problem that Golovkin has is he’s not able to get fight against Jacobs and Quillin. These are both fighters that Golovkin would be more than interested in facing if the bouts were offered to him, but neither of these fighters have shown a lot of interest in facing him.
Quillin is saying that he’d be interested in fighting Golovkin once the bout is built up to where it’s the equivalent of Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. But that’s not going to happen though, because Quillin doesn’t appear to be getting more popular with the fans. Quillin is getting older, but not more popular.
At 31, Quillin is pretty much in the same boat as he was five years ago when it comes to popularity. Quillin hasn’t faced the type of opposition that he’s needed to in order to become a more popular fighter. Instead of facing Golovkin, David Lemieux, Miguel Cotto or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Quillin has fought guys like Lukas Konecny, Gabriel Rosado and Fernando Guerrero. Those fights burned up two years of Quillin’s career.
As for Jacobs, he’s kind of in the same boat in terms of popularity or lack thereof. Jacobs hasn’t been fighting the top guys since he was beaten by Dmitry Pirog in 2010.
Last August, Jacobs defeated Jarrod Fletcher to capture the WBA World middleweight title. But since then, Jacobs hasn’t fought, and he won’t be fighting until April 11th when he defends his title against #15 WBC fringe contender Caleb Truax at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. With opposition like that, Jacobs isn’t doing himself any favors and he’s not going to become a more popular fighter.
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