By Dan Ambrose: IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) not only has been passed up by WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward in Ring Magazine’s official pound-for-pound ratings, but he’s also been beaten out by Roman Gonzalez (43-0, 37 KOs) in a poll conducted by the website. Golovkin is at No.2 in the poll with 25.70 percent of the votes compared to Gonzalez’s 56.44 percent.
Golovkin’s rating at No.2 is obviously a product of his lack of quality opposition he’s been facing. The boxing fans want to see Golovkin step up and face quality opposition. The fans are partly getting their wish with Golovkin’s fight against IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux next month on 10/17.
Beating Lemieux will give Golovkin his first good scalp of his career and will help him move up in future pound-for-pound polls. If Golovkin can beat the winner of the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto fight, he’ll definitely get pushed up the pound for pound rankings. But if Golovkin can’t get a fight against the winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight then he’s likely going to stay where he’s at in the pound-for-pound rankings, because there aren’t enough quality opponents in the 160lb division for fighters like Golovkin to increase his cache in any significant manner.
What’s interesting about the poll is that it appears to be much better than the Ring’s own pound-for-pound results, which has Golovkin at No.4, behind 1. Gonzalez 2. Andre Ward 3. Sergey Kovalev.
1. Roman Gonzalez 56.44
2. Gennady Golovkin 25.70
3. Manny Pacquiao 6.11
4. Wladimir Klitschko 3.01
5. Andre Ward 2.62
6. Sergey Kovalev 2.04
7. Guillermo Rigondeaux 1.02
8. Canelo Alvarez .83
9. Kell Brook .59
10. Miguel Cotto .50
11. Terence Crawford .41
12. Leo Santa Cruz .07
12. Shinsuke Yamanaka .07
14. Keith Thurman .06
15. Tim Bradley .03
Golovkin belongs at No.2 in the pound-for-pound ratings, and the fans seem to have their head on straight. I don’t agree with Ring’s ratings of having Ward and Kovalev above Golovkin. The reason for that is Ward has fought only once in the past two years, and he’s not fought anyone good since 2013. His last win was over 2nd tier fighter Paul Smith in June of this year, and that was more of tune-up fight than anything due to how poor a fighter Smith is.
Here are the Ring Magazine’s current pound-for-pound rankings:
1. Roman Gonzalez
2. Andre Ward
3. Sergey Kovalev
4. Gennady Golovkin
5. Guillermo Rigondeaux
6. Wladimir Klitschko
7. Terence Crawford
8. Manny Pacquiao
9. Shinsuke Yamanaka
10. Kell Brook
Klitschko has dropped in the ratings as well as Golovkin. We could see both of them move up the ratings if they win their next fights in impressive fashion. Wladimir is fighting unbeaten Tyson Fury (24-0, 18 KOs) next month on October 24th at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.
If Wladimir can win the fight and look good by knocking the 6’9” Fury out in impressive fashion, then we could see Mayweather moving up in the rankings.
Roman Gonzalez will be facing 34-year-old Brian Viloria (36-4, 22 KOs) on the undercard of the Golovkin vs. David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs) on October 17th next month at Madison Square Garden in New York. This will be one of Gonzalez’s tougher opponents and it’ll show the boxing fans whether he deserves to be at the No.1 spot.
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