Should Mayweather fight Gennady Golovkin next?

By Boxing News - 05/02/2016 - Comments

Image: Should Mayweather fight Gennady Golovkin next?By Dan Ambrose: After retiring last September, Floyd Mayweather Jr. could be returning to the ring in the near future for a big money fight against one of the top fighters. Mayweather talked with Showtime’s Jim Gray last Saturday night about a potential comeback.

Mayweather does not seem particularly interested in fighting Gennady Golovkin, a fighter who is quickly becoming the biggest name in the sport. Mayweather thinks Golovkin should move up two entire weight divisions to fight Andre Ward at light heavyweight.

Historically, we’ve seen welterweights dare to be great like Sugar Ray Leonard moving up in weight to fight middleweight world champion Marvin Hagler in 1987 in a fight Leonard won. We saw Sugar Ray Robinson move up from welterweight to beat middleweight Jake Lamotta. If those guys did it, then why can’t Mayweather? Golovkin said Mayweather wouldn’t even have to fight him at middleweight. He could fight him at junior middleweight.

Golovkin said he would come down to 154 to fight Mayweather at junior middleweight, a division where Mayweather had held world titles since 2013. A comeback fight against Golovkin makes all the sense in the world. Mayweather seems more interested in fighting WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia than he does in fighting Golovkin or the winner of the June 25 fight between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter.

“Danny Garcia, another name. An undefeated champion in two different weight classes. Very exciting fighter. You just never know,” Mayweather said to Gray. “I think that it’s best that (Golovkin) go up and fight (light heavyweight) Andre Ward. I think that would be a good fight for Triple G and Andre Ward.”

There’s your answer to the question of Mayweather fighting Golovkin in his comeback. Mayweather seems to be saying in plain language that he wants no part of fighting Golovkin. Instead, he was Golovkin to move up two divisions to fight a light heavyweight Andre Ward, who would likely weigh in the 190s in a fight against Golovkin.

Golovkin is really the only guy Mayweather can fight if he comes back because the other fighters he would pick from won’t sell. Mayweather’s days of hand-picking vulnerable contenders and bringing in a lot of PPV buys might be over after his fight against Manny Pacquiao last year.

That fight arguably hurt the sport of boxing, and many of those same fans won’t bother purchasing anymore of Mayweather’s fights on PPV. I think the only way that those fans would be willing to see Mayweather fight is if he faces Golovkin. Mayweather-Golovkin sells on PPV, and it would likely bring in more than 2 million PPV buys.

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Mayweather’s other options are poor for a number of reasons. Mayweather won’t likely take the dangerous opponents in the 147lb division like Keith Thurman, Errol Spence or Shawn Porter. Mayweather vs. Danny Garcia is a fight that doesn’t sell in my view. If Mayweather believes that a fight against Danny Garcia will excite the boxing public, then he’s kidding himself.

If Mayweather were to have fought Garcia in 2013 after his win over Lucas Matthysse, then there might be some interest in a fight between him and Garcia. Unfortunately, a lot of things have changed in the last three years in Garcia’s career. Since the win over Matthysse, Garcia has had questionable decision wins over Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson.

Garcia also had a recent poor performance against Robert Guerrero. Garcia also failed to take on Viktor Postol in sidestepping the fight to face Peterson, and then moving up in weight to welterweight without facing Postol. It looked to some like Garcia ducked Postol.

It’s hard to argue with that when you look at the guys Garcia has faced recently instead of taking that fight. Rather than face Postol, we’ve seen Garcia fight Paulie Malignaggi, Rod Salka, Peterson and Guerrero. Like I said, Mayweather is three years late on the Danny Garcia fight. The interest in that fight won’t be there because it’s too similar to Mayweather’s fight against Andre Berto last year. Mayweather fought that fight four years late. Berto was in his prime in 2011. By the time 2015 rolled around, Berto was little more than a guy with an inflated ranking after a nothing win over Josesito Lopez.

“No, I like being on this side,” Mayweather said. “Thurman and Porter both are exciting fighters. That’s a good matchup. But I’m happy being on this side.”

Mayweather does not seem to fancy the idea of fighting Thurman or Porter. That’s interesting because both of those guys are seen as better fighters than Danny Garcia by boxing fans. The winner of the Thurman-Porter fight will be seen by many fans to be the No.1 fighter in the welterweight division. It makes sense for Mayweather to fight the winner of that fight if he wants to be seen as a great fighter.