By Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin showed fully last Saturday night that there is a huge difference in talent between him and WBC flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez. The two of them fought on the same card in front of a packed Madison Square Garden in New York.
While Golovkin boxed beautifully in pounding out an impressive 8th round knockout win over IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux in the feature bout on the card, Gonzalez had to struggle to defeat #2 WBC challenger Brian Viloria by a 9th round knockout in the co-feature bout. Gonzalez was hit often, and hurt in the 9th round from a body shot by Viloria.
Gonzalez was forced to come back from the moment in the 9th to get the victory. There was certainly a sense of drama in the 9th for Gonzalez, although he denied completely being hurt after the fight. Gonzalez was definitely hurt by a body shot from Viloria in the 9th. In contrast, Golovkin looked superb with his near shutout performance over Lemieux.
Golovkin was rarely hit in the fight and he did a great job of making Lemieux look like an ape in the ring
In light of the performances by Golovkin and Gonzalez, I believe that Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound ratings needs to be adjusted with Golovkin inserted into the top spot in the rankings and Gonzalez moved down to a more fitting place for a fighter with marginal defensive skills.
I think Gonzalez deserves to be top 5 in the rankings, but definitely not in the top 3 spots. He’s too easy to hit, and struggles against the best fighters in the flyweight division. Gonzalez barely beat Juan Francisco Estrada three years ago in their fight in 2012.
Here’s my top 10 pound-for-pound ranking:
1. Gennady Golovkin
2. Sergey Kovalev
3. Adonis Stevenson
4. Terence Crawford
5. Roman Gonzalez
6. Miguel Cotto
7. Wladimir Klitschko
8. Deontay Wilder
9. Orlando Salido
10. Jorge Linares
I think Roman Gonzalez needs a lot of improvement before he can get within the top 3 in the pound for pound rankings, and I’m not sure if he’ll ever get there. He is 28 right now, and fighter is usually pretty well set in terms of their boxing skills by the time they hit that age.
The No.1 fighter in the pound-for-pound lists should be a guy with impeccable skills, both defensive and offensive. Golovkin is that person. Roman Gonzalez is just a fighter with good offensive skills but poor defensive skills. He also is a slow starter, and that hurts his game because he gives away valuable rounds at the start of his fights.
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