How is Golovkin struggling to be rated?

By James P Sexton: Gennady Golovkin was a relatively unknown name when he knocked out Milton Nunez in the first round to win the WBA interim World Middleweight Title. Back then he was only 6 into his now 18 streak of straight knockout victories. However, today he is an easy pick for anyone discussing exciting fighters in the sport.

A short while ago I posted an article relating to the pound for pound picture and I listed GGG as the fifth best fighter on the planet regardless of weight, and after reading through the comments and discussing the listings with some friends, this was generally accepted.

What is interesting to see is when I look at the views and opinions expressed by boxing writers and the media in general they often belittle his accomplishments.

An example of this is that in ESPN’s recent update to their pound for pound ratings they listed GGG as sixth. Whilst it was refreshing to see him placed to highly, he was beneath guys like Juan Manuel Marquez and Timothy Bradley, guys who simply have not been producing the same results. Ring Magazine also a shuffle of their pound for pound top ten on the 3rd of January and somehow didnt find any space to include triple G at all. They did however find it fair to include Saul Alvarez and Andre Ward. Incredible that such respected outlets of boxing information could be so misguided.

The main attack on Golovkin is that he has not fought the top contenders in the sport. He has become is a victim of his own success, scaring the other belt holders and big names around him away. He is viewed as a high risk-low reward fight by many. If you really look at it though, how true is it to say that Golovkin has not mixed it up with the best fighters? If you asked me to list the best 20 fighters at middleweight I would include Geale, Stevens, Adama, Rubio, Murray and maybe even Macklin on that list. Each of these men have been brutally destroyed by GGG. Whats more the only men in the middleweight division who really can be viewed as fighters bigger than the ones he has been taking would be Cotto, Quillin, Taylor (only because he is a belt holder) and Martinez should he choose to continue as a fighter.

To put Golovkin outside of the top ten on any pound for pound list is a mistake and you have to wonder how many more knockouts can go by before the Ring are forced to add him to the list.