By Dan Ambrose: Angel Garcia, the trainer/father for former WBC 140lb champion Danny Garcia, doesn’t see what the fuss is all about with U.S boxing fan’s interest in WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. Angel thinks that only people at HBO know about Golovkin. American boxing fans don’t have any idea who Golovkin is, says Angel.
Angel basically sees Golovkin as an unproven fighter who hasn’t faced the guys necessary for there to be so much hype about him. Further, Angel thinks that Golovkin hasn’t done enough to rate a fight against WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. He thinks that Golovkin needs to prove himself worthy of getting a fight against Cotto before getting a fight against him.
The only way Golovkin can do that, Angel says, is for him to face a lot of the guys that Cotto has fought previously. If Golovkin can beat all those fighters, then he can come back and fight Cotto.
“I don’t know where they get Triple G. Nobody knows him, only people at HBO,” Angel Garcia said via thaboxingvoice.com. “No American people know him. They try to make him seem like he’s a killer. He’s good but he ain’t fought nobody. Danny [Garcia] fought all the killers, and they put cherries on his page. He [Golovkin] really got cherries. They’re trying to build a star when there’s no star there. He’s still not fighting the killers. Cotto should tell him to fight some guys Cotto fought first. Come fight those guys and come fight me when you’re ready.”
It almost seems like Angel doesn’t want Golovkin to fight Cotto for fear of what might happen to Cotto. Cotto doesn’t need to be protected from Golovkin, and if he does, then he shouldn’t be holding down the WBC middleweight title. He should move back down in weight to fight smaller guys. But even at 154, Cotto might not be the guy in that weight class either. Demetrius Andrade would likely have his number, as would the Charlo brothers.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler had this to say about Angel Garcia’s rant:
“Angel should focus on DSG [Danny Garcia] Boxing, not GGG’s English after Danny lost to [Mauricio] Herrera and [Lamont] Peterson #GiftGarcia Rematch [Rod] Salka?”
The problem with Golovkin going out and proving himself worthy of a fight against Cotto is the fact that Cotto is 34, and probably not going to be around for more than a year or two. For Golovkin to go back and fight all the guys that Cotto has fought recently, it would take too many years for him to do this. Even if Golovkin could get fights against the guys that Cotto has fought, which is seriously doubtful, Cotto would be long retired by the time Golovkin came back to fight him.
Additionally, it would look really bad for Golovkin to fight some of the guys that Cotto has fought like Manny Pacquiao, Delvin Rodriguez, Austin Trout, Daniel Geale [Golovkin already beat him], Sergio Martinez and Joshua Clottey. Many of those fighters are very average, and the others are either on their last legs or already retired. Golovkin isn’t going to get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Pacquiao, both of which are former opponents of Cotto. There’s no way Golovkin can fight the guys that Cotto fought in the past.
Golovkin and Cotto appear to be going in different directions. Golovkin is getting more popular, while Cotto appears to be losing fans by failing to fight frequently. He’s fighting once a year now, and being very careful of the fighters that he faces. That’s how it’s been for him in his last two fights against a broken down Sergio Martinez and a past his best Daniel Geale. If anything, Cotto needs Golovkin more than he needs him.
If Golovkin’s fight against David Lemieux on October 17th outperforms the November 21st fight between Canelo and Cotto, then it’s going to show how big Golovkin has become in terms of star power.
Comments are closed.