Roach and Froch want Golovkin to move up to 168

By Boxing News - 12/13/2016 - Comments

Image: Roach and Froch want Golovkin to move up to 168

By Allan Fox: Trainer Freddie Roach and former super middleweight champion Carl Froch think it’s time for middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin to move up to super middleweight in pursuit of bigger fights. They don’t see any opportunities for Triple G at 160, even though there’s a chance that he could get fights against Danny Jacobs and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in 2017.

Those two fights would seem like reason enough for GGG to stick around at 160, at least until he finds out what Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy are going to do next year. If Golden Boy chooses to keep Canelo away from Golovkin while using his name constantly with the boxing media to attract interest, then Golovkin might want to move up to 168 to see which fights he can dig up in that weight class.

“He’s going to have to move up to fight better guys,” said trainer Freddie Roach about Golovkin to fighthub. “He needs better opponents. Better opponents seem to be in the higher weight classes. That’s what the great fighters that have won multiple world titles have to do. They move up. He’s one of those guys that have to move up,” said Roach.

Golovkin would have the chance for maybe six fights at 168 that would interest the boxing public and create big news. Those fights are as follows:

James DeGale

Badou Jack

Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Callum Smith

George Groves

Those would be good fights, but out of all of them only the Chavez Jr. fight would attract interest in the boxing world for Golovkin. The other fights lack big enough names for Golovkin to gain much attention in fighting them.

“I just told him straight and told him to fight somebody,” said Carl Froch about Golovkin to IFL TV. “No, there’s no point in returning. I’ve got no desire for the game anymore. I think Chris Eubank Jr. gives him a very good fight. He’s very tough and fit. He’s got a high work rate. Gennady Golovkin gets hit. It’s not as if he doesn’t get hit. With the punching power of Golovkin, because he’s quite heavy-handed, if he [Eubank Jr.] could withstand the punch power, then he wins on points. I think he’s [Golovkin] talking so much nonsense, and his team around him such a big ego, it’s all talk, because he doesn’t have anybody on his resume that says, yes, this guy is world class, he’s potentially a Hall of Famer. He needs to box somebody so that you can say he’s a great middleweight. If he can’t get a fight against middleweight…Gennady Golovkin should step up to super middleweight and fight a couple of names at super middleweight. I think he’s an easy night’s work for Andre Ward. It’s time for him to take the bull by the horns and move up and fight at super middleweight. Let’s see it,” said Froch.

Andre Ward is not going to fight Golovkin now unless he moves up all the way to 175. Ward isn’t going to come back down to 168 to fight him, especially now that he’s holding the IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight titles. If Golovkin were interested in fighting Ward, he would need to move up to 175. Golovkin would be giving away a lot of weight in a fight against Ward. It wouldn’t be surprising if Ward outweighs Golovkin by 20 pounds if he moved up. It would be the equivalent of Ward moving up to cruiserweight to fight WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk. That would be a bad match-up for Ward. He wouldn’t be able to count on taking it to the inside the tie Usyk up all night and expect to win. Usyk would pick him off while he was coming forward looking to hold and wrestle.

When asked who wins in a fight between Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez, Froch said, “Probably Golovkin. Canelo is small. He looks like a guy that’s not worried about getting involved in a fight. He looks like the kind of guys that wants a fight, and Golovkin, I think, will happy to oblige. That’s a fight that he [Golovkin] can win, but it’s a really tough one for Canelo against someone like Golovkin. If you’re going to blame someone for that fight not happening, you have to blame Canelo, because Golovkin seems happy and willing to fight anybody in the middleweight or smaller. He was happy to fight Kell Brook and say how great of a fighter he is. It’s a mismatch in terms of weight. His team is happy to say he’s the best thing since Sugar Ray Leonard and Sugar Ray Robinson.”

“Canelo and Triple G is an even fight,” said Mikey Garcia to Fighthype.com. “I slightly side with Triple G taking the fight. He’s a big, strong guy, but it’s really pretty even. They’re both big, strong dudes. You know, some might say they saw weakness and imperfections in Triple G’s last fight, but that’s against Kell Brook. He’s a good boxer. He’s not a big puncher, but he’s a good boxer; fast hands, angles, that kind of thing.”

It’s speculation at this time wondering who wins the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight. Until we see Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy willing to take the fight, I don’t know if you can pick a winner in the fight. Golovkin looks like the better fighter right now compared to Canelo. We saw how Canelo struggled recently against Liam Smith and Amir Khan.

If Golovkin was able to box and slug Canelo all night long without getting hurt by him, then he could wind up scoring a knockout. The really unknown is if Golovkin could wind a decision against Canelo. If he’s unable to knock Canelo out, he might find himself in the same position that other fighters have that have lost controversial decisions to the Mexican star. Canelo means a lot to U.S boxing right now due to the money he brings to the sport. Trying to get a decision win over a popular fighter like Canelo might prove to be impossible.

Golovkin’s best and possibly only chance of beating Canelo might be by a knockout. Fortunately for Golovkin, he specializes in scoring knockouts and leaving judges with power to control the outcome of his fights. If they could control the outcomes of his fights, he would have been in danger of losing to his last opponent Kell Brook. who he ultimately stopped in the 5th round last September.