Sanchez: Golovkin is the #1 pound-for-pound fighter

By Boxing News - 04/24/2016 - Comments

golovkin577By Dan Ambrose: With IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s impressive knockout of Dominic Wade (18-1, 12 KOs) last night, Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez thinks he should be the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter in boxing.

Golovkin is currently #3 in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings, behind #1 Roman Gonzalez and #2 Sergey Kovalev. However, after Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez’s less than spectacular performance last night in winning a grueling 12 round decision over fringe contender McWilliams Arroyo (16-3, 14 KOs) in the co-feature, you can make a strong argument that Gonzalez (45-0, 38 KOs) no longer the #1 guy in the pound-for-pound rakings, if he ever deserved to be there in the first place.

I thought Gonzalez looked poor in his previous fight against Brian Viloria last October, but he looked even worse last night.

“I think it’s obvious who the pound for pound number one is,” Sanchez said via AFP. “I don’t think there’s ever been a fighter, in any era, in any weight division that has dominated his weight division at a championship level the way Gennady has. He makes good fighters look amateurish.”

I have to agree with Sanchez. Golovkin is winning his fights a lot better than Gonzalez, and he deserves to be the top fighter in the sport right now. Golovkin has knocked out 22 consecutive fighters over an eight-year period. Gonzalez had a 10-fight knockout streak end last night in his fight against the 31-year-old Arroyo.

There’s no way that Gonzalez or Sergey Kovalev should be ranked above Golovkin. I like both fighters but neither of them has done enough to be rated as the No.1 guy. Gonzalez’s best win of his career is a narrow win over Juan Francisco Estrada. Gonzalez didn’t look that great in that fight either.

Kovalev’s best victory of his career is a 12 round decision win over 49-year-old Bernard Hopkins from two years ago in 2014. You’ve got to be able to do better than that if you want to be rated above an unbeaten fighter with no blemishes on his resume like Golovkin.

For Golovkin to take the top sport in the pound for pound ratings, he’s likely going to need to beat someone like Saul Canelo Alvarez to prove once and for all that he’s the best fighter in the 160lb division. That’s going to be hard to do if Caneo decides on never facing him or waiting hi out until he’s old and weak before finally choosing to fight him. Gonzalez has already proven he’s the best fighter in the flyweight division in beating Estrada.

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Kovalev has more or less proven he’s the best fighter in the light heavyweight division despite the fact that he still hasn’t faced Adonis Stevenson in a unification fight.

Golovkin has a tougher task to prove that he’s the best fighter in the middleweight division because he can’t get the best fighters to face him. If people that select the Ring Ratings are waiting for Golovkin to beat all the top 160b fighter, then they could be waiting forever because I don’t see him ever getting the chance to do that.

“I don’t think he’s ever hit someone 100 per cent,” Sanchez said. “I think he may have hit someone 100 percent in the gym, but I don’t think he’s done it in a fight. That situation will come when someone tests him.”