By Dan Ambrose: In looking at the welterweight and junior middleweight divisions there’s probably no one in either of those divisions that has enough talent to beat WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) right now. Mayweather has already proven that he’s the best at 147lb with a win over Manny Pacquiao, and he’s proven that he’s the best at 154 by beating Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Mayweather hasn’t proven that he can beat the best fighter in the 160lb division in Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. He would have a good chance of beating Mayweather if he were to ever agree to that fight. Dan Rafael of ESPN gives Golovkin the best chance of beating Mayweather in those three divisions.
Rafael likes Golovkin’s punching power, amateur background and boxing skills. He thinks that he could give Mayweather a lot of trouble if that fight were made at a catch-weight between junior middleweight and middleweight. Golovkin already said that he’d come down all the way to 154 to make the fight happen, so there wouldn’t be any need for a catch-weight unless Mayweather wanted one to make it fair for Golovkin.
Of course, you never know if Mayweather would ask Golovkin to come down to 152 to make even more difficult for him to get down in weight to beat him. Mayweather fought Canelo at a catch-weight of 152lbs, and Canelo is a heavier fighter than Golovkin at 175.
“The fighter would beat him [Mayweather] in the sport would have to be a legitimate middleweight,” Rafael said on ESPN. “There are people who would love to see him fight Triple G. You and I both know Golovkin would love that fight, and Mayweather would probably never take it in a bazillion years. That’s the kind of guy that could beat Mayweather. Golovkin is bigger physically, a good puncher; a guy with a good chin, a guy with superb boxing ability, and a guy with a great amateur background with his career. But that fight is probably never going to happen, but that’s a testament to the greatness of Mayweather. They have to send him all the way up to middleweight or a catch-weight between junior middleweight and middleweight to find one of the best fighters in the world who you think to have a really good chance to beat him,” Rafael said.
I agree with Rafael. I think Mayweather would never take on a fighter like Golovkin, even though he actually weighs less for his fights than Canelo does for his junior middleweight and middleweight catch-weight fights.
Golovkin has that one-punching power going for him, and his ability to cut off the ring on his foes. Canelo doesn’t have either of those things going for him, so it was logical that Mayweather gave the green light to a slow fighter like that rather than a fighter with better skills like Golovkin. It would be a much more dangerous fight for Mayweather if he took on Golovkin compared to his fights against Canelo and Miguel Cotto.
It would be very difficult for Mayweather to beat Golovkin because he would need to fight the perfect fight without getting hit at all to have a chance of winning. All it takes is one perfectly placed shot for Golovkin to the chin of Mayweather for him to score a knockout.
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