By Gerardo Granados: Next Saturday April 23 at the Forum Inglewood, California, USA; the avoided and undefeated WBA – IBF – IBO Middleweight Champion of the World Gennady Golovkin W34 (31)-L0-D0 will fight against the IBF mandatory challenger Dominic Wade W18 (12)-L0-D0. For GGG it could be his twenty second consecutive win by the way of knockout, the last time that Golovkin went to the distance was in June of 2008 when he defeated Amar Amari via unanimous decision.
GGG will also try to increase his impressive consecutive title defense winning streak to an unprecedented consecutive 16 wins by the way of knockout.
But, somehow 34 years old Gennady Golovkin, has been managed to fail to claim a spot in boxing as one of the top pay per view earners and also as the A side in all negotiations.
Golovkin stated to HBO that “Outside the ring, I am Gennady Golovkin, inside the ring, I’m GGG. I know my job”.
It is a shame that we cannot see his inside the ring personality take over his attitude outside the ring. If so, years ago GGG would have already become a huge draw. He could be followed by much more fight fans if he did so and GGG would already have got the fights Gennady Golovkin has not been able to get.
The story of Dr. Jekyll and Hyde is represented by a boxer, who to me is a delight to watch inside the ring. Both smart and merciless, with a raw violent killer instinct to go along with a high ring IQ and polished boxing skills. For me, inside the ring, Triple G should be called 666 Golovkin instead. But that same boxer outside the ring is “good boy”, maybe too good for my taste.
As the reader must know I am not a boxing purist. Even if I do can appreciate the sportsmanship of the combatants, I rather enjoy trouble makers. I prefer the Mike Tyson, Ricardo Mayorga, Johnny Tapia, Riddick Bowe or Ricky Hatton type of personality in and outside the ring.
Years ago, around 4 years back Gennady Golovkin had to wait for Sergio Martinez to give him a shot at the WBC middleweight title; but Maravilla avoided him and end up losing the title and finally retired without taking the risk of fighting an unproven but dangerous challenger.
Then Miguel Cotto avoided Golovkin and was able to make one title defense of his strap. Defended against Daniel Geale at a lousy catch weight and then Cotto was allowed to fight 155-pounder Canelo Alvarez in a big money fight, instead of fighting against Gennady Golovkin, who was the WBC middleweight mandatory challenger.
Gennady took a step aside agreement and was supposed to fight the winner of the Cotto vs Alvarez fight but after endless extension given by the WBC the fight didn’t happen. Instead of demand the WBC to strip Canelo off the belt, Gennady Golovkin agreed once again to accept his B side status and allowed Alvarez to take a fight before facing him to supposedly get ready, but now against welterweight Amir Khan in a low risk big money fight.
The reader must know that De la Hoya said that the fight between Alvarez vs Golovkin needed to be “marinated” due basically business wise reasons. But the business A side will always get the bigger cut of the pay and as usual the B side might even could have to accept crumbs due his lower business side status.
Meanwhile the mere possibility of that fight marinates, Gennady Golovkin might waste his best fighting years, just waiting to take his righteous place as the real A side. It seems like he will keep on allowing others to take the earnings that he could already be taking.
How can GGG ever become the A side if he keeps on acting as he didn’t deserved or if he couldn’t be the one dictating the terms is a mystery for me.
I bet that if GGG could come out of the ring and negotiate his fights, by now Gennady Golovkin would already have fought many of the so called big names that year after year have avoided him.
It is odd that for Gennady Golovkin it has been so hard to become a huge draw or to be recognized as the biggest name in boxing. But it cannot be because GGG has not been able to catch the attention of the influential UK – US – Mexican fan base. Lesser talented boxers are able to draw more attention than him, not only Canelo, but also boxers such as Peter Quillin, Adrien Broner, Anthony Joshua or Danny Garcia are maneuvered to head main events with financial success but Gennady Golovkin good boy act might not be enough to get him to the next level.
What will Gennady and his management do, if the winner of the Canelo Alvarez vs Amir Khan hoax fight decide to not to fight him next? Will they be able to get the WBC to strip the winner and give the belt to him? How can Golovkin become the A side if he keeps on his good boy attitude during the negotiations? Does GGG needs another Promoter to achieve the A side status?
I am growing impatient with the endless “Gennady Golovkin” patience. Maybe he will be able to get Canelo to fight him next year. Perhaps he has been brain washed to believe that to fight him all fights need to “marinate”. But for sure, the so called big names are only waiting for “GGG” to slow down before daring to meet him inside the ring.
I believe GGG is wasting his best years just waiting. But, what about the readers, do you agree?