By Dan Ambrose: In what has to be taken as a warning for WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs), what 160 pound champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) said that he thinks the tiny 5’7” Cotto is too small to be fighting in the middleweight division.
Golovkin says he believes that Cotto is just doesn’t have the size to be fighting in the 160 pound weight class, and believes that Marco Antonio Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KOs) is the toughest challenge he has I the division, not Cotto.
Cotto is the exact same size at the 5’7” Curtis Stevens, a fighter that Golovkin bludgeoned for 8 one-sided rounds last November until the fight was finally halted in the 8th. Stevens has the same kind of punching power that Cotto has.
Indeed, you can make an argument that Stevens is Cotto 2.0, but with a little more defense than Cotto a better punch resistance. But Stevens was too short for Golovkin to land his power shots, and the fight was very one-sided. Stevens landed some of his power shots from time to time, but his lack of reach and size kept him from being able to land a lot of his shots.
“I think he’s [Cotto] too small for the middleweight division,” Golovkin said on A Los Golpes this week. “I respect him, but I think Miguel’s too small.”
Golovkin will be fighting Rubio on October 18th at the StubHub Center, in Carson, California, USA. The winner of the Golovkin-Rubio fight will become the WBC interim champion, and the mandatory challenger to Cotto.
Golovkin’s not too worried about that. He feels that Rubio is the main guy at 160. Golovkin didn’t mention Sam Soliman or Peter Quillin, but it seems obvious that he doesn’t rate either of those fighters because he failed to mention them when talking about who feels is the best guy, besides himself, at 160.
“Rubio is the best name in the middleweight division,” Golovkin said to Fightnews.com. He is the interim champion and he is the biggest test for me.”
Golovkin or Rubio is going to be going for the WBC title in 2015, whether it be against Cotto or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. One of those fighters are going to be facing a big puncher next year, and they’re going to need to decide whether or not it’s worth it to hold onto the WBC middleweight title. There’s a huge amount of responsibility and danger that comes with holding onto that prestigious title.
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