Golovkin likely to take over for Mayweather as boxing’s top star after he retires

By Boxing News - 05/18/2015 - Comments

1-golovkin3 (1)By Dan Ambrose: In the last three years, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s popularity has been skyrocketing in the boxing world. He’s knocked out 20 fighters in a row stretching back to 2008, and he’s quickly on his way to becoming the biggest start in the sport.

Golovkin has the best chance to take over in my view for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao when they retire. Miguel Cotto is likely nearing the end of his career, and his popularity seems to have reached its peak a long time ago.

Besides that, Cotto is fighting only once a year at this point of his career, and not really challenging himself. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is too shaky to be the guy to take over for Mayweather and Pacquiao. We saw Canelo lose to Mayweather, and then almost lose to Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara.

Clearly, Canelo doesn’t have the talent to become boxing’s next star, and he’s not going to be able to get there on the cheap by beating easy marks like Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland. Canelo will have to prove that he can beat Golovkin, and I don’t see him capable of doing so despite what the likes of Amir Khan and Willie Monroe say.

“We will keep doing what we are doing while we try to get a big one,” Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler said to ESPN.com. “People love to come out and come to see him fight regardless of who he fights. People just want to see him in the ring because he is so exciting.”

What tells me that Golvokin will be the next star, besides his huge ratings on HBO each time he fights, was the way that he has the crowd screaming each time he fights. If you saw Golovkin’s fight last Saturday night against Willie Monroe Jr., you’ll have noticed how the huge crowd at The Forum in Inglewood, California, was cheering Golovkin’s name after the fight, and shouting each time he would land one of his big shots to the head of Monroe.

You don’t see that kind of fan excitement in Canelo or Cotto’s fights. They don’t have the huge punching power that Golovkin has, and they’re not willing to get in the trenches the way that Golovkin does. Canelo tries to box his opponents much of the time rather than using his 170+ pound size to overpower his lighter opponents pooled from the light middleweight division rather than the middleweight division, which is where Canelo is fighting at.

Golovkin only needs to keep stopping guys like he’s been doing for him to take over as the next PPV star in the future. He really doesn’t need help from Canelo and Cotto for him to become the next PPV star. It would nice if they would fight him because by collecting their scalps, it would take Golovkin to the next level immediately, but that’s not going to happen. Golovkin will need to get there by continuing his knockout streak and continuing putting in superb performances like we’ve been seeing from him in the last seven years.



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