Why Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin’s next opponent should be Erislandy Lara

By dalexander - 05/17/2015 - Comments

Image: Why Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin's next opponent should be Erislandy LaraBy David Alexander: Last night, IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) defeated and scored a TKO victory against challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (19-2, 6 KOs) in Inglewood, California. A tune up fight for GGG, the match wasn’t a surprising outcome considering Golovkin was a heavy favorite coming in. Against a slick and southpaw fighter, Golovkin handled with ease a boxer that moves around a lot and uses his movement.

Considering that Monroe Jr. isn’t in the same class as GGG, yesterday’s fight magnifying that, Golovkin ahould consider a fight against Erislandy Lara in September or November.

Erislandy Lara (20-2-2, 12 KOs) is known as one of the most avoided fighters in the middleweight division. The skills, and lack of superstardom equates to low reward and high risks to the eyes of many. This is why Canelo Alvarez was highly praised for facing the highly skilled Cuban fighter. Alvarez managed to escape with a split decision victory with a controversial scorecard from Levi Martinez that read 117-111 in favor of the Mexican star. I had the Lara-Alvarez fight a draw.

Alvarez has made it abundantly clear, despite being such a close fight a rematch will not take place due to the lack of star power Lara has. Canelo’s camp feels they won, and can grab more lucrative offers in the immediate future.

Lara went from headlining a PPV with Alvarez, to fighting Ishe Smith on a Friday night. It seems that the only fighters willing to face Lara are the lesser known opponents who are hungry for their chance of stardom and becoming a premier fighter in the division. Gennady Golovkin finds himself in a similar situation.

Golovkin is rapidly growing in popularity, but still remains as a high risk, low reward type of opponent for fighters such as Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez.

Recently Lara made it clear he’s willing to fight anyone via twitter and has said this about GGG:

It will not come as a surprise if Golovkin and Lara are both left without a serious fight sometime in the year 2015, and volunteer to fight one another. The odds of this occurring seem slim, but it’s always a possibility depending how things pan out for both fighters and their promoters handle it. It also helps Golovkin’s team has claimed they want to keep their fighter active, and are willing to face just about anyone. If GGG wants to fight anyone, Lara will truly become a test for him and make GGG doubters have more confidence in him fighting the upper level fighters.

Lara vs Golovkin would be a good fight for about 7-8 rds until Gennady catches up with Lara, breaks him down to the body and ultimately stops him. If Alfredo Angulo knocked him down and Canelo Alvarez hurt him in the body, Golovkin’s punches will really hurt Lara in the later rounds. Golovkin cuts the ring off better than most fighters and goes to the body like a body snatcher, just too strong and powerful for ‘The American Dream’. Golovkin by TKO within 8-10 rounds.

People tend to forget Gennady Golovkin has amateur boxing experience and has won a silver medal in the Olympics. He has seen many styles. Lara is slick and can use his lateral movement much as he wants, as they say ‘you can’t hit what you can’t see’. The problem with that is GGG can hit what he can see. He doesn’t respect you in the ring and in the end, he will find a way to put you down and win.

An impressive win or KO against Erislandy Lara would put Golovkin above Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in boxing fans eyes and would prove he can beat a boxer that is slick, uses a lot of movement and has tremendous boxing skills that boxers tend to avoid. Does those attributes sound familiar with 2 undefeated fighters right now that people want GGG to fight?



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