(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Scott Gilfoid: Former two-time super middleweight title challenger George Groves thinks WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) should trim down some weight, and move down to 154 to attempt to get big money fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao.
Groves, who has previously sparred with Golovkin recently, thinks Golovkin has weight he can take off still to fight at 154 rather than 160. At junior middleweight, Groves believes it’s possible for Golovkin to get fights against Pacquiao, Mayweather, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Pacquiao.
I wonder if Groves has ever considered the idea that Golovkin would be avoided like the plague if he moved down to 154. I mean, that’s the likely scenario. Golovkin would be like Paul Williams was when he fought at welterweight. No one wanted to fight Williams when he was at 147, and he eventually had to move up in weight to 154 in order to find fights.
Sure, Golovkin can move down to 154, but what the heck good would that be if he’s totally avoided by the big names like Canelo, Cotto, Mayweather and Pacquiao. If Golovkin moved down in weight, he’d have to be satisfied with fighting the likes of Erislandy Lara, Carlos Molina, Demetrius Andrade and Cornelius Bundrage. None of those are big fights, and I can’t see Golovkin dragging up any welterweights to fight him like Keith Thurman, Kell Brook or Amir Khan.
Can you picture Golovkin in the ring with Khan? It would be a massacre. Danny Garcia likely would never move up in weight to 154 to fight Golovkin at a catch-weight.
“I’d love to see it,” Groves said via Skysports.com about a Golovkin vs. Mayweather or Pacquiao fight. “There’s Cotto, Alvarez and Mayweather or Pacquiao… so many names in and around the light-middleweight division and so many great fights that can be made. I don’t think he’s the biggest middleweight out there. He’s in shape; he boxes so regularly he is always in shape.”
Golovkin is in a sad situation right now. None of the popular middleweights or super middleweights have shown interest in fighting him. Andre Ward would fight him, but it doesn’t look like Golovkin’s promoter will make that fight against Ward. We’re probably looking at Golovkin being stuck fighting the mediocre middleweights for the remainder of his career. At best, maybe someone like Daniel Jacobs or Peter Quillin might fight him some day, but I seriously doubt it.
As for Golovkin moving up to 168 to fight Groves, why would he do that? Groves is just trying to keep his career afloat after being exposed twice by Carl Froch. We’re likely going to get Groves knocked out next year by WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell. After that loss, Groves will need to make a big decision about where he wants to go with his career. He’ll be pretty much stuck with fighting on the domestic level against the likes of Callum Smith and James DeGale. I can see both of those guys knocking Groves out as well. A knockout loss for Groves next year against Dirrell will be Groves’ third knockout loss in his last four fights, and I think Smith and DeGale would continue Groves’ downward spiral by knocking him out as well.
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