By Isaac Brodie: The greatest frustrations in the sport are the political divides which cause fights that determining fights in some of its most exciting divisions to be waged only in the comments sections of websites like this one. Matches that would be a given within the confines of any other sport fail to come into fruition because of feuding promoters, rival networks and simple cases of fighters being ducked.
This leads fighters that are deserving of opportunities to win over the fans and prove themselves in their division to miss out on these opportunities for lack of appropriate and willing opponents. Two clear examples of this are number two pound for pound Andre Ward and rising star Gennady Golovkin.
Very few boxing fans would try to discredit the obvious skill of the undisputed king of the 168lb. weight limit, and yet he is still fighting for scraps compared to other pound for pound fighters because he lacks a strong following. And its not as if he hasn’t been trying. Andre Ward is one of the most dominant champions in the sport and he reminds us of this every time he steps into the ring. The reason no one gets excited about his fights is that there is never much chance of a fighter beating him, he seems untouchable in this weight class. The next best fighters, Froch and Kessler, have already been completely outclassed by him. What Ward needs is a real challenge, he needs a fighter that poses a genuine threat and forces him to deliver a career performance in order to get the W.
I’m not saying this is necessarily Anthony Dirrell.
Anthony Dirrell first caught my eye only as the younger brother of promising challenger Andre Dirrell but has since convinced me that he could be a real player at 168. This is a fighter with great boxing ability and respectable power. It’s too soon to be claiming he could really challenge Ward at this point as we’ve yet to see him defeat anyone of note. However is he does come away with the victory, as well as the WBC title, in his next fight, against Sakio Bika on Dec. 7, it would no longer be out of the question. If he is able to capture this slice of the title and make a couple of quick defenses against decent opposition this could be enough to plant the seed of doubt as to Wards supremacy and add a level of excitement to an impending super middleweight showdown.
Then there’s Golovkin, who should of course be fighting Ward if he does move up, or else Carl Froch.
However these fights could both be hard to negotiate. These two champions would be taking a risk in fighting Golovkin, one they do not need to take. They would likely make more money in fighting one another in a rematch that would pose little risk. Little risk for Froch because Ward has already schooled him once so unless he were to be knocked out it would not affect his standing in the division. And an even smaller risk for Ward, who would be likely to beat Froch just as decisively if not more so. And the same could be said for the other middleweight champions, who Golovkin has stated his interest in fighting. Sergio is much more likely to favor the big payday of Canelo and/or Cotto. And I don’t see Quillin opting to fight Gennady anytime soon with the way he is being handled (though it could be possible he is just in the same boat as Golovkin when it comes to match making). Golovkin is going to struggle to find an opponent that will give him a chance to put his skills on display and silence his doubters because, despite the impressive fashion in which he has disposed of his opponents, many are still unimpressed by him. And it’s true that his opponents thus far have not been of an elite level so some skepticism is understandable.
If Andre Dirrell picks up this belt he could be the answer to Gennady’s problem. This fighter might just be young and hungry enough to take the risk in order to capture spotlight a win over the boxing community. Do I think he could win? Not particularly, but he could hopefully push Golovkin enough to give him a chance to show off. That is unless all of us around the world cheering GGG do in fact turn out to be victims of another hype job.
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