Golovkin vs. Ward would be a sellout, says Hunter

By Boxing News - 09/19/2015 - Comments

Image: Golovkin vs. Ward would be a sellout, says HunterBy Dan Ambrose: Trainer Virgil Hunter doesn’t buy the excuses coming from IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s team that a fight between Golovkin and his fighter WBA 168lb champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) wouldn’t be a big fight that would have a large impact at the gate.

Hunter thinks that a fight between Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) and Ward would be a sellout, and would attract a great deal of interest in the boxing community.

Golovkin and his management and trainer aren’t interested in facing Ward right now because they see more lucrative fights out there against the likes of David Lemieux, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Miguel Cotto and Andy Lee. They want to exhaust all the potential big money fights at 160, and unify all the titles in the weight class before looking to fight guys like Ward.

However, Hunter notes that Golovkin has shown interest in fighting super middleweights in the past in looking to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Carl Froch. Hunter thinks that if Golovkin and his management team were interested in Chavez Jr. and Froch, then they should be agreeable to fight Ward.

Chavez Jr. and Froch would have created a ton of interest for Golovkin if he would have fought them. It would likely be a lesser extent if Golovkin were to fight Ward.

“Abel Sanchez, he’s got a great horse [Golovkin] in the race, but he talks a little too much,” Hunter said to Fighthype. “You don’t need to add minuses by just yapping because you got a guy [Golovkin] who was pretty much successful before he got to you. The strategy and marketing has been incredible to endear him to the Hispanic fans. To say ‘Mexican style,’ that’s a great marketing strategy. He’s a heck of a fighter. Why wouldn’t you want your fighter to fight the best? I you say you’ll [Golovkin] move up to fight Chavez, you’ll move up to fight [Carl] Froch, then why won’t you fight me? [Ward]. You want to say it has no impact at the gate. I guarantee you that if Golovkin and Ward fought it would be a sellout,” Hunter said.

Golovkin has been marketed well by his promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions with the “Mexican Style” slogan for Golovkin. But even if Loeffler didn’t come up with a slogan like that to attract the Mexican audience, Golovkin would still be gaining a lot of boxing fans with the way that he fights. He’s knocking everyone out with his “drama show” each time he fights, and he’s dominating every one he faces. When you see fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr. putting on dull performances, and then you see Golovkin with his exciting knockouts, it’s clear why he’s gaining such a huge fan base in such a short time.

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Ward isn’t known for knocking out his opponents, and he doesn’t look to slug when he fights. He does a lot of clinching and wrestling. It’s not as interesting for some fans to watch his fights.

“Beating Lemieux is expected, which happens to be a very dangerous fight. I think Lemieux is pretty much rebounded from his setback with [Marco Antonio] Rubio,” Hunter said. “I think he’s rebounded and come back and made the necessary changes. He’s definitely a dangerous fighter. But the name is bigger than the situation. To say he’s not a draw or anything like that. Well guess what? When you’re promoted right, you’ll be a draw. Andre hasn’t had that opportunity yet,” Hunter added.

Right now guys like Canelo and Cotto or bigger draws than Andre Ward. I don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future. It makes all the sense in the world for Golovkin to want to fight the bigger names than for him to fight someone like Ward, who is teetering on the precipice of moving up to light heavyweight. Golovkin, a small middleweight, doesn’t appear to be excited at fighting a guy that would likely have a significant weight advantage over him in Ward.

Errol Spence not worried if Keith Thurman never fights him

Undefeated #10 WBA Errol Spence (18-0, 15 KOs) says he’s not worried if WBA “regular” welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) chooses to avoid him and never fight him. Spence, 25, says that he doesn’t need to fight the 26-year-old Thurman in order to have a good career. Spence says that if Thurman doesn’t want any part of fighting him, then he’ll find other fighters that aren’t hesitant to get inside the ring with him.

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Spence is quickly making a name for himself and becoming a star in the welterweight division. He’s doing this without even having faced any big names. It’s his performances that have the boxing world excited about his potential as the replacement for Floyd Mayweather Jr. now that he’s retired. But even if Mayweather were to stick around for another two or three years, Spence would still wind up making a big name for himself.

“I expected him [Thurman] to say it. Sometimes he says nobody wants to fight him or this and that, but when somebody steps up you get all types of excuses,” Spence said to espn.com. “It is what it is. He said what he had to say. I’m not going to go out of my way. I don’t need to fight Keith Thurman. It’s not a fight that I have to have. There are other fighters out there who are willing to fight me. Once I get up there, hopefully sometime next year, maybe we’ll fight or maybe we won’t. But it’s not something that will affect me,” said Spence.

Getting Thurman to agree to a fight against Spence might prove to be impossible unless Spence becomes a huge star like Mayweather. I don’t think Thurman will ever agree to fight Spence if he merely becomes as popular as someone like Amir Khan. I believe that Spence would need to get as famous as Mayweather for Thurman to want any part of fighting him because he’s such a dangerous opponent.

Spence is coming off of an 8th round knockout victory over #6 IBF Chris Van Heerden (23-2-1, 12 KOs) last week on September 11th in a fight on Premier Boxing Champions card on Spike TV at the Toronto’s Ricoh Coliseum, in Toronto, Canada.



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