By Robert “Lead Right” Elmore: Gennady Golovkin (or as I like to call him; The Tripster; Trip, and my new one Trip Hammer) has certainly won my respect. He is often accused of fighting second rate opponents just to pad his record. He’s been accused of ducking super middleweight Andre Ward; not having enough value to his name to match him against the likes of Miguel Cotto, Carl Froch, or Saul Alvarez. But allow me to clarify a few things here. One, please stop talking about him ducking Andre Ward.
Ward is ducking himself by not being in the ring. He signed a new deal with Roc Nation, but has yet to announce what his future plans are. He hasn’t even announced any future prospects. So until he actual climbs into the ring, post a video of him working out; something; anything, then Ward is out of this equation until further notice. Keep in mind, I’m a Ward fan. Two, how can Trip Hammer fight any of his fellow 160 pounders if they don’t answer the call? Peter Quillin has a fight coming up against Andy Lee for the WBO strap, David Lemieux was reported to fighting Hassam N’ Dam for the vacant middleweight IBF title, and WBC middleweight champ Miguel Cotto still hasn’t decided what he’s going to. So right now everything is tied up.
But when I examined K2’s stable they have six active fighters. They are Golovkin, Mike Perez, Jonathan Banks, Ola Afolabi, and Walter Saroni, and Wladimir Klitschko. These are good fighters, but Trip is the bread and butter especially with retirement looming for Klitschko. There are two ways to looking at this. One, Tom Loeffler is a done an exceptional job in handling Trips career thus far. But I stated in a forum after the announcement came Willie Monroe Jr. was Golovkin’s next opponent, that maybe it’s time for K2 to dig deep in their pockets and give these big name opponents the money they are asking for since they aren’t making any offers.
Does Loeffler and company have such cash to offer? Or maybe it’s time for Trip to align himself with someone who can get him the cash and the big fights he craves. With a stable as thin as K2’s there really isn’t room for error in terms a fighter losing a fight. And that’s no shot at Trip. Let me explain. If we look at Al Haymon’s stable he has many big names; Andrien Broner; Amir Khan; Danny Garcia and Deontay Wilder (who I believe Haymon will hang his anchor on, once Mayweather retires), and many others.
Say if Danny Garcia losses, Haymon can easily fill the slot and keep it moving. He could even go the lengths of securing another title shot after a couple recovery fights if he really wanted to. Look at Golden Boys stable. Canelo is the anchor with newly signee David Lemieux at a close second, and Lucas Matthysee not far behind. Oscar is not going to match Canelo, Lemieux or Lucas up in any huge matches any time soon (I know Lucas is fighting Provodnikov. But Provo is a coming forward fighter who takes to many shots for my taste and will lose against Lucas). He knows if one or both, or all three go down, there is no other big name to put his anchor on.
K2 falls into this category. What I don’t want to happen to Golovkin is that he goes the Marvin Hagler route. I believe that if Golovkin can get a big name before unifying the belts, then he’ll move on. At that point, his name would be bigger than a belt. But if it’s anybody who I think would work with Loeffler its Haymon. Haymon has proved that (by doing the Floyd Mayweather Jr/Manny Pacquiao fight) that he can sit down and hash out a deal with anybody. Maybe it’s time that Golovkin moves on when his contract is up. What do you guys think?
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