By Angel Flowers: Saturday night we all saw it, middleweight Kingpin Gennady “GGG” Golovkin finally got former NABF Welterweight Champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez into the ring to fight at the full middleweight limit.
Despite what Golovkin and his people have said, it was obvious from any pictures of the two that Golovkin was a much bigger man. In the brightest of lights, we did not see a “Big Drama Show”, what we saw was a great fight between the middleweight champion and a blown up super welterweight. Many will point out one judge had the fight scored different than what actually happened in the ring, I had Alvarez winning the first three rounds and actually had him down going into round ten where he won the last three. 118-110 score aside, if Judge Byrd had scored the fight 115-113 in Alvarez’s favor there would not be any uproar. What we saw last Saturday was a middleweight bully a super welterweight into making a fight, and then watch that middleweight struggle. I think Golovkin just had the wrong game plan despite his preparations.
Golovkin is known for chasing fights with lighter men, he relentlessly hunted for a fight with former welterweight Floyd “Money” Mayweather and even made comments about Mayweather during the lead up to his fight. Golovkin successfully got former IBF Welterweight Champion Ezekiel Brook to fight him, resulting in an easy win. Brook hit Golovkin often and with his best punches, punches that would have dropped other welterweights. The big middleweight Golovkin walked through those punches before knocking out Brook. Golovkin probably figured that would be the outcome, he had fought other welterweights and had gotten the KO, David Lemieux was a former Canadian Welterweight champion, Matthew Macklin was the former British Welterweight champion and Nobuhiro Ishida was a former Japanese Welterweight Champion. Golovkin walked through all of their punches as well to score an easy knockout. The only regret Golovkin may have had prior to his fight with Alvarez was not fighting former WBO Welterweight Champion Miguel Cotto. For over a year he had chased the current WBO Super Welterweight Champion Miguel Cotto trying to bully him into making a big money fight. Golovkin had Alvarez right where he wanted him but could not close the show.
Alvarez was a lot more accurate with his punches than Golovkin was. Golovkin tried to hide behind his jab but was being nailed by power punches all night. Alvarez had more power than the other former welterweight champions Golovkin had fought and connected with him over 40% of the time. The same punches Alvarez was hitting the middleweight champion Golovkin with would have knocked out people Alvarez’s own size, like Amir Khan, James Kirkland and Liam Smith. I thought Golovkin would have tried to knock out Alvarez but instead we got a highly competitive fight. But where does Golovkin go from here?
I doubt Alvarez would give Golovkin another fight, Golovkin brings no money or star power to the table. I doubt his fight with Golovkin would come anywhere near the numbers he did fighting Floyd Mayweather; the public just doesn’t care for Golovkin’s habit of knocking out former welterweights. Alvarez has been in big money fights before, he fought Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto. The most Pay Per View Buys Golovkin has done as the headliner was under 100k. Golovkin hopes his former welterweight foes would sell the fights like Ezekiel Brook and Saul Alvarez did. I think Golovkin should try to fight an actual middleweight like current undefeated WBO Middleweight Champion Billy Jo Saunders. I doubt seriously this fight would ever happen despite what Golovkin had said.
Golovkin has stated he wants all the middleweight titles, he went after the smaller Cotto and Alvarez as an excuse to fight them, not for their titles. Saunders expressed interest in the fight, instead Golovkin fought Brook. Saunders asked for the fight again and Golovkin fought Alvarez. I think for a guy who wants to be the undisputed champ that he should fight the only other middleweight champion out there, but as someone trying to earn a living I don’t ever see that happening. Golovkin has a family to feed, if he was soaking up the punches he received from Alvarez by an actual middleweight he would have been knocked out and possibly saw his career ended. Not only that, he has found more money in fighting smaller men, just compare his earnings to that of Andre Ward, Liam Smith or any other boxer that has constantly sought out fights with bigger opponents. I believe I know the top three people Golovkin will fight next.
I can see him fighting Danny Garcia, Garcia has a big name and great power for the light welterweight, welterweight division. Jeff Horn is another name that springs to mind, he beat Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao, is the current WBO Welterweight Champion and has a huge following in Australia. The last person I can see him fighting is Vasyl Lomachenko, Lomachenko has not yet fought at welterweight but he is on his way there and arguably has a bigger name than Golovkin does. I can see Golovkin possibly stepping down in weight to the low 150’s to make this fight happen. I think Golovkin will have no choice but to fight them since I doubt he will fight Daniel Jacobs again. Alvarez most likely would fight the man Golovkin has been avoiding, Billy Jo Saunders in either England or Las Vegas.