Gennady “Money” Golovkin

By Angel Flowers - 04/07/2017 - Comments

Image: Gennady "Money" Golovkin

By Angel Flowers: Much myths and legend has swirled around middleweight kingpin Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Many tell of a fearless warrior who wants nothing better than to unify the middleweight title. Golovkin and his management believe he is the most feared fighter in boxing. Recently Golovkin fought Daniel Jacobs who was seen by Golovkin’s promoters as the number two middleweight in boxing on PPV. During this so-called clash of champions between Golovkin and a fighter who in my opinion fought much better than he should have, Golovkin pulled in a whopping 170k pay per view buys after a tough negotiation with Jacobs over what Jacobs wanted for the fight.

I personally think Golovkin was after a payday and thought fans would turn out in droves to pay to see him fight, something that obviously did not happen and for a big reason. Golovkin is not some fearless warrior but a prize fighter like most fighters are.

Former Jr. Lightweight Champion Floyd Mayweather made it known he was all about the money and was criticized for it, when in reality more fighters today including Golovkin would rather be Mayweather than a truly fearless warrior like Bernard Hopkins and those of his ilk. Golovkin though has taken it one step further. Not too long ago Golovkin stated he wanted to fight former Jr. Lightweight Champion Floyd Mayweather at 154.

I think Golovkin’s reason for that was simply for the money, while Floyd Mayweather had fought at Jr. Middleweight before his last fight there was at 152 against the popular Jr. Middleweight Champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. When Mayweather let Golovkin know he was not known enough and he should fight someone like Super middleweight Andre Ward first Golovkin had nothing to say. Jr. Middleweight Champion Erislandy Lara offered to take him on at 154 and Golovkin bowed out.

For a fearless warrior who was willing to go to 154 this was a chance to fight an established fighter. If Golovkin beat Lara it could have only improved his popularity by being a multi-weight champion. Golovkin failed to take the fight with Lara as well as Ward. Ward expressed interest in the fight but eventually got tired of waiting around and went to dethrone feared knockout artist Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev. Who in their right mind would rather climb into the ring against the much bigger, stronger and talented Sergey Kovalev at his weight rather than face the untested Golovkin?

When Alvarez, who at that time was the middleweight champion offered to fight him at 155, Golovkin balked saying he only fights at 160. This is because I think Golovkin was scared to fight at that weight, not because some type of morals. I think Golovkin probably knew the WBC could force the weight of 160 and that Alvarez, who is a lot more popular than GGG would have to give up at least 40% of the total purse despite not being popular to bring in that kind of money on his own.

Alvarez vacated the title but then immediately challenged Golovkin offering him 11 million dollars for the fight at 160, five times his biggest purse ever at that date but Golovkin decided to take the safe money and fight little welterweight Ezekiel Brook instead. As of right now, Golovkin and his people have gone on record saying they would be willing to fight super middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez at 168 if he should beat Alvarez in their upcoming fight. Andre Ward and his people let it be known Ward, despite dethroning Kovalev is still a super middleweight and still wants the fight. If I am the so called most feared man on the planet and someone a weight class above me wants a fight I give it to him. It is what Mayweather has done, it is what Alvarez has done it’s what Ward has done. Golovkin though needs to stop pretending to be a warrior and admit he is in it for the money like the majority.

The facts are when faced with tough fights for decent but not mega money, Golovkin went in another direction. Instead of Lara at 154 or Ward at 168 he fought a welterweight at 160 because I think he felt it was safe money and an easy fight against a guy two weight classes below him. Now that he fought the flawed Daniel Jacobs and barely beat him, Golovkin, which brought in 170k PPV, he wants more than the better deal than what was originally offered against Alvarez, who has put in the work to become popular.

I believe that Golovkin is interested in money, that is the reason the other middleweight champ Billy Jo Saunders had to give him an ultimatum, either sign the contract and fight for the titles since you have been saying all you want to do is unify the title or admit you are not in it for the prestige but the money. As of yet, Golovkin has only brought up fighting Chavez who holds no titles or Alvarez, a guy a weight class smaller than he is. I think if Golovkin would actually battle the Andre Ward’s of boxing instead of the Daniel Jacobs, then he could really be a feared warrior and a PPV Star instead of the man he is today getting only 170K PPV buys.