By Dan Ambrose: In an interview this week, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) made it clear that he can’t fight IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) because he’s a 160 pound fighter. Mayweather didn’t want any part of fighting Golovkin at 154, when asked if he would be willing to fight the Kazakhstan fighter at that weight.
Mayweather says he fights at 147, and that’s he’s already done enough for the sport of boxing without having to move up one weight class to fight Golovkin at 154.
Mayweather doesn’t seem to mind that his fight against former two time world champion Andre Berto is seen as a mismatch by boxing fans. Mayweather’s motto is no one is forcing you to watch the fight.
“I just focus what’s in front of me which is the fight,” Mayweather said when asked by Fox Sports about the IV drip scandal. “People have been taking shots at me for many, many years trying to find different things to take my legacy. I’m happy with my legacy. I’m happy with what I’ve done. For the sport of boxing, I still believe in random blood and urine testing which I’m currently doing now. Berto is a very tough competitor and is a tough guy. He’s a two-time world champion, a guy that’s going to push me and that’s what I need. Triple G is a 160 pounder. I fight at 147. I’ve done a lot in the sport of boxing. All the top guys. I’ve already beat all the top guys in the sport,” Mayweather said.
Mayweather’s excuse for not fighting Golovkin is a weak one considering that Mayweather fought Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at a catch-weight of 152 pounds in 2013. Canelo rehydrates to the mid-170s at 175 for his fights at junior middleweight; whereas Golovkin typically weighs 170 after he rehydrates for his middleweight contests.
The only difference between Canelo and Golovkin is the divisions the two fighters choose to fight in. Despite being heavier than Golovkin when he steps foot inside the ring, Canelo chooses to fight in the junior middleweight division. He’s bigger than Golovkin in terms of weight, but he still likes to fight junior middleweights rather than middleweights. It stands to reason that if Mayweather was willing to fight Canelo, then he should be agreeable to fighting the lighter Golovkin, because he’s five pounds lighter than Canelo for his fights. The only reason why you can assume Mayweather doesn’t want any part of Golovkin is because he has one-punch power and is better at cutting off the ring than Canelo.
Mayweather was able to make mistakes against Canelo because he doesn’t have the huge kind of power that would take advantage of all the mistakes Mayweather makes in his fights. With Golovkin, Mayweather would need to be absolutely perfect to escape from that fight with his unbeaten record intact.
“On September 12th, I’m focused on Andre Berto,” Mayweather said. “He’s a guy that I cannot overlook. Making $300 million in 36 minutes. I don’t think that’s not being appreciated. I think that being a smart businessman and taking care of my job, and not working harder, working smarter. No one is entitled to watch. I would love everyone to tune in to watch, but no one is forced to watch anything if they don’t want to watch. I’ve never said I was the people’s champion. All I said is I was TBE [The Best Ever] – the best inside and outside the ring. I took less punishment inside the ring and outside. I work the smartest. The less punishment you take the longer you last in the sport. That’s why I’m the only fighter that’s been at the top for 19 years, and been in the sport for 19 years and been a world champion for 18 years. When it’s all said and done only God can judge me. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, and my thing is to go there and do what I do best and that’s to just win, no matter how you win as long as you win,” Mayweather said.
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