By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. was dismissive of WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin on Wednesday in talking to the media. Mayweather said that he feels he would have no problems beating Golovkin if the two of them were to fight.
Mayweather feels that even at his own weight of 150 pounds, he would still defeat the 170 pound Golovkin if a fight were made between them. Mayweather saw Golovkin’s recent win over ESPN regular Willie Monroe Jr., and he came away not impressed with what he saw from the Kazakhstan star.
Mayweather says if he had trained Monroe, he would have beaten Golovkin on that night. That’s obviously hard to believe because Monroe’s biggest problem in the fight was his inability to take Golovkin’s power. It wouldn’t have mattered if Mayweather had trained Monroe because he still would have had to take Golovkin’s power shots from time to time, and Monroe simply couldn’t do it.
“I finally had a chance to see the guy [Golovkin] fight,” Mayweather said to the media. “I congratulate him on everything he’s done, but even at my weight, he can’t beat me. I don’t knock him. He can’t beat me. I thought he was straight up and down. No special effects. He can punch, but I seen him in his last fight [against Willie Monroe]. I don’t even know who that guy was. If I worked with the guy, the guy would have beaten him. But I don’t take nothing away from Golovkin. It’s obvious that he done something right. So whoever they put in front of him, he beats them. So he’s been doing something right thus far,” Mayweather said.
It’s easy for Mayweather to dismiss Golovkin right now because he still hasn’t beaten anyone of note. If Golovkin turns around and knocks out Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto, or if he takes his knockout streak for another three to four years, it’s going to be impossible for Mayweather to negate the guy. But by then, Mayweather will have retired from the sport and he won’t have any pressure on him to fight the guy.
If Mayweather faces someone good in his next two fights that have the same kind of popularity and knockout percentage as Golovkin, then it will be easier for boxing fans to see Mayweather’s dismissive comments of Golovkin as meaning something. But if Mayweather takes a soft touch in his fight in September, and then takes on another similar fighter in 2016, then it’s going to come across to some like Mayweather was ducking the fight with Golovkin.
Mayweather defeated Canelo in 2013, and he’s a fighter that weighs more than Golovkin. The weight isn’t an issue that would stop a fight between Mayweather and Golovkin. The issue would be that Mayweather doesn’t want the fight.
Golovkin is a lot more dangerous than Canelo because of his ability to cut off the ring, and his one punch power. Canelo doesn’t have fast feet, and he doesn’t have the same kind of punching power that Golovkin has. That’s the reason why Canelo’s knockout percentage isn’t as high as Golovkin.
As many times as Mayweather was hit by Pacquiao and Marcos Maidana in his last three fights, I think there would be a good chance that Golovkin would catch up to Mayweather and knock him out with a single shot.
Mayweather would certainly be better respected by fans if he were to take the fight with Golovkin rather than fighting someone like Amir Khan, Andre Berto, Karim Mayfield or Pacquiao. Golovkin is unbeaten, and those guys have all been beaten many times. You can’t easily dismiss a guy with an unbeaten record and a knockout percentage like Golovkin.
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