Golovkin tops Roman Gonzalez in No.1 P4P poll

By Boxing News - 10/19/2015 - Comments

Boxing: Golovkin vs LemieuxBy Dan Ambrose: WBC flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez (44-0, 38 KOs) didn’t do a good enough job in beating #2 WBC challenger Brian Viloria (36-5, 22 KOs) last Saturday night for him to receive serious consideration as the No.1 pound-for-pound poll at Fight News.

The boxing fans have spoken and overwhelmingly IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) is seen as the No.1 fighter in boxing in the pound for pound list. The Fight News pound-for-pound poll has Golovkin on top 51% combated to Roman Gonzalez’s 28%.

Golovkin looked a lot better in my view in beating IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs) by an 8th round knockout than Gonzalez did in defeating Viloria by a 9th round knockout. Gonzalez was hit a lot in the Viloria fight, and was even hurt in the 9th round by a body shot.

That performance from Gonzalez likely led to his stock dropping in the eyes of boxing fans, because it wasn’t the overwhelming performance that we saw from him in his previous fight against the aging 36-year-old Edgar Sosa last May. Gonzalez stopped Sosa in the 2nd round, and a short time later was vaulted to the top of Ring Magazine’s No.1 pound-for-pound poll.

I prefer polls to pick out who the best fighter is in boxing rather than a small group of people sitting down and deciding on who the No.1 pound-for-pound list should be. When I see ESPN or Ring Magazine making the determination of who is the No.1 P4P fighter, I see it as being too few people making the decision. There needs to be a large collective brain that makes the decision, not some group of people.

Gonzalez looked good in beating Viloria, but that performance was clearly not that of a No.1 pound-for-pound fighter. Gonzalez looked too flawed to me to be even close to the No.1 spot. To be sure, Gonzalez showed good punching power and excellent offensive skills, but he was hit too frequently and it was troubling to see him hurt by Viloria in the 9th round.

There was a moment there where I wasn’t sure whether Gonzalez would survive the round. Viloria had him badly hurt from a left to the body. The No.1 P4P fighter shouldn’t be someone that is getting hurt and on the verge of getting knocked out by a 34-year-old fighter like we saw last Saturday night.

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Golovkin was like a surgeon on carving up Lemieux with his jabs and his pinpoint power shots all night long. I think the boxing fans have made the right choice in selecting Golovkin as the No.1 pound for pound fighter, and I see as the correct way of deciding who the No.1 fighter should be rather than going by what a small group of people decide.



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