Mayweather needs to fight Golovkin if he wants put a stamp on his career, says Atlas

By Boxing News - 09/02/2015 - Comments

Image: Mayweather needs to fight Golovkin if he wants put a stamp on his career, says AtlasBy Allan Fox: ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas thinks Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) needs to really push himself at the end of his career if he wants to put a special stamp on his career before retiring from the sport.

Atlas thinks that Mayweather needs to move up to middleweight and take on IBO/WBA 160lb champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) in order for Mayweather to show that he’s really the ‘The Best Ever’ [TBE] as he likes to say he is.

Atlas notes that welterweight greats from the past Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns took risks with their careers in moving up to middleweight and found success in those weight classes.

Both Hearns and Leonard won world titles at 160. Hearns went further in moving up to super middleweight and light heavyweight and winning world titles in those weight classes. Hearns even moved up to cruiserweight and won the IBO title.

Atlas isn’t asking Mayweather to move up to super middleweight, light heavyweight, cruiserweight or heavyweight. He just wants to see Mayweather extend himself a little by fighting Golokvin, a guy that is actually lighter than Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, a fighter that Mayweather defeated two years ago by a 12 round unanimous decision.

“If Floyd wants more of those hats, ‘TBE,’ The Best Ever, if he wants me to buy one, then he does what Sugar Ray Leonard and all those great fighters from the 80s did, he moves up in class, and took a risk and fought bigger guys and won,” Atlas told Fighthype. “Leonard did it. Hearns did it; Duran, they all did it. Pernell Whitaker, he did it too. Step up. A lot of people say he’s [Golovkin] too big for him. He wasn’t too big for Leonard and all those guys, because they were too smart, too fast. If Floyd’s everything he says he is, if he wants to put that special signature on it, step up with the bigger guy, Golovkin, and show you’re too fast, too cute, you’re too slick, and too smart. Do that. I’d love to see that. His [Mayweather] speed, his cleverness against the power and aggression and body work of Golovkin. That would be interesting to see. I’d like to see that,” Atlas said.

Getting Mayweather to agree to a fight against a hard puncher like Golovkin could be virtually impossible at this point. Mayweather made a lot of money in his last five fights of his six-fight contract with Showtime/CBS, especially in his fights against Manny Pacquiao and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. The money that Mayweather has made has him less willing to take risks that could result in him getting beaten. Fighting Golovkin would be a real 50-50 affair, and definitely not a fight where Mayweather could be considered the clear favorite like we’ve been seeing in his fights for almost his entire career.

Mayweather seems to be in the shutdown mode of his career after beating Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd of this year. Mayweather could have taken on some tough opponents like Amir Khan, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman or Kell Brook for his next fight on September 12th, but instead he selected 31-year-old Andre Berto, a fighter with a 3-3 record in his last six fights.

Mayweather is actually going to have the Berto fight on Showtime pay-per-view, which means Mayweather is selling a huge mismatch to the boxing public. Fighting Berto is like Mayweather choosing to fight Victor Ortiz again, because Berto’s career is pretty much at the same level that Ortiz’s career is at right now. Ortiz’s record in his last six fights is 2-3-1 compared to Berto’s 3-3 record. We’re talking about roughly the same class of fighter.

Mayweather seems risk aversive right now, and seems to be protecting his unbeaten record by not taking a risk that could potentially cause him to get beaten for the first time in his 19 year pro career.

If Mayweather was to fight Golovkin and beat him, it would a huge win for him to retire with, especially if Golovkin went on to defeat the likes of Miguel Cotto and Canelo to show that he’s the best fighter in the middleweight division. Mayweather’s career would be seen like Leonard’s career if he were to retire with a win over Golovkin. Leonard moved up to middleweight and defeated world champion Marvin Hagler in 1987. If Mayweather were to do the same thing in moving up to take on Golovkin for his world titles, it would be a huge deal if Mayweather were to win.



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