Golovkin vs. Wade – 10 more days!

By Boxing News - 04/13/2016 - Comments

golovkin8133By Allan Fox: Boxing fans have 10 more days before IBF/IBP/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin defends his titles against IBF challenger Dominic Wade on April 23. This is a fight that many fans are really looking forward to despite the fact that it’s seen largely as a mismatch with Golovkin facing his ritual sacrificial lamb for the slaughter.

I don’t agree with that. I think the 25-year-old Wade is going to give Golkovkin a real test in this fight. You have to remember that this is going to be Wade’s Super Bowl, his World Series, and he’s going to be totally hyped up for the fight, unlike Golovkin.

The Kazakhstan fighter is going to be looking at this fight as a mismatch, so it’s not going to be a contest that he’s going to be nearly as excited about. This is how upset occur. Golovkin will be coming into the fight thinking that he’s got an easy mark, and Wade could somehow bring his game to a high enough level to beat him.

We all remember how Buster Douglas pulled off a huge upset over then world champion Mike Tyson in 1991. That fight was Douglas’ best performance of his career. Unfortunately for him, he was never able ton raised his game to that level again. We might see the same thing if Wade can get hyped up enough to come out and take Golovkin out.

The undercard fight between WBC flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez and challenger McWilliams Arroyo (16-2, 14 KOs) is a fight that is beyond upsets. Gonzalez is in another galaxy than Arroyo, and he’s so much farther advanced than him that there is no possibility whatsoever for Gonzalez to lose this fight. He’s in his prime of his career at 28, and facing a guy that is absolutely tailor made for him.

If they were to create the perfect opponent for Gonzalez to KO, they would create Arroyo, because he’s an ideal KO victim for Gonzalez in every way.

Wade doesn’t have much going for him in his fight against Golovkin other than youth, power and ambition. However, those ingredients might just be enough for Wade to get the win. Golovkin just turned 34, and he’s looking ahead for much bigger fight against WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez later this year. That’s a fight that will give Golovkin a huge payday, and it’ll potentially turn him into a big star if he can get the KO win.

You cannot blame Golovkin if he overlooks Wade in this fight because he has bigger fish to fry against the hard hitting 25-year-old Canelo if he can get that fight because it’ll make him so much money. A win for Golovkin over Canelo might even turn him into a PPV attraction. I happen to think that Canelo will do a duck job to avoid the Golovkin fight for the time being.

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Canelo can make easy money cleaning out the welterweight division of all the big names. Canelo has the popularity behind him to drag any welterweight he wants up to his weight division at 155, and Golovkin can’t do that. There aren’t any welterweights that are going to come up to 160, and face a guy that can maybe hurt them.

I think they would do that if there was a lot of money in a fight against Golovkin and if he were willing to fight them at 155 like Canelo, but since neither of those things are possible, you’re probably not going to get welterweights eagerly agreeing to fight Golovkin. It’s too risky and there’s no money in the fight.

I also don’t see Golovkin getting a fight against WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders. He’s not going to want to face Golovkin in a unification fight for chickenfeed if he can’t get a bundle of money for risking his WBO 160lb title. If there was a lot of money in a fight against Golovkin, then it would be a doable fight, but there’s not.

Golovkin-Wade will be televised on HBO Championship Boxing from the Forum in Inglewood, California. The fight could pull in as many as 17,000 fans if it sells out. We know that the Forum’s seating is being expanded to fit in more fans due to the demand for tickets. This is Golovkin and Roman Gonzalez fans bringing in the huge crowds.



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