By Chris Williams: Former lightweight champion Nate Campbell says he doesn’t understand why middleweight world champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) doesn’t move up in weight to fight guys at light heavyweight, especially given that the 160lb division doesn’t have popular guys for him to fight right now.
Campbell doesn’t understand why Golovkin is so eager to fight a small welterweight like Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he’s not eager to fight guys that are 15 pounds heavier than himself at light heavyweight like Andre Ward or Sergey Kovalev.
Campbell points out that Sugar Ray Robinson started out his career at welterweight and he moved up all the way to light heavyweight. Roy Jones Jr. started out at middleweight, and he moved up to heavyweight at one point. Mayweather started his career out at super featherweight and he moved up all the way to junior middleweight. Campbell doesn’t understand why Golovkin just wants to stay at middleweight and take no risks by fighting guys in other weight divisions above him.
“Sugar Ray Robinson went from 147 to 175 and there were no junior weight classes,” said Campbell to Fighthype.com. “Floyd Mayweather went from 130 to 154. Roy Jones Jr. went from 160 pounds to heavyweight. So what makes GGG any less than them to where it’s not even asked that he does it, especially if he’s that good? And then to say he’s going to stay in that division because that’s what [Carlos] Monzon and [Marvin] Hagler did; but dude, ain’t nobody in the weight class now.”
Golovkin says he wants to clean out the 160lb division before he eventually moves out of the division to face the best at 168 or even some guys at 175. However, 34 now, and with the glacial pace that it’s taking for him to clean out the middleweight division, he may never move up to the other weight classes at super middleweight and light heavyweight.
The only way it makes sense for Golovkin to move up in weight would be for him to do it now while he’s still relatively young. If he waits much loner, he’ll have the excuse for why he shouldn’t have to move up in weight by saying he’s too old to do it.
I think it’s pretty clear that Golovkin will never move up in weight to super middleweight and especially to light heavyweight. Golovkin is like the newer version of Joe Calzaghe, a fighter who dominated the super middleweight division for a 10-year period when there was a complete absence of talented fighters.
Calzaghe presided over the 168lb during the dead period for that division. Golovkin is doing the same thing at 160. Golovkin wouldn’t have been able to dominate like he is now when Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins were both young and ruling the middleweight division. Golovkin is lucky that guys like Julian Jackson, Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank Sr. and Gerald McClellan aren’t around now at middleweight and young. Golovkin would be stuck being just a contender at 160 if all those fighters were around and in their prime at middleweight. Could you imagine Golovkin fights McClellan, Julian Jackson, Jones Jr., Hopkins, Benn and Eubank Sr? I think Golovkin would lose to all of them and lose badly.
“I made a statement that white America couldn’t build white boys to beat black boys in America, so they went overseas and got white boys from overseas and brought them back over here,” said Campbell. “So as far as that’s concerned, they will take the Great White Hope from there and they’ll embrace them here in the United States and make superstars of them. And then they will fix their mouths to say that GGG is the fighter that’s so great,” said Campbell.
It’s true that Golovkin has become very popular in the U.S. He’s originally from Kazakhstan, but he’s now adopted what he himself calls the “Mexican style” of fighting, and he’s become quite popular within the last two years. Boxing fans can wish all they want about Golovkin moving up in weight to take on some real challenges in fights against Ward, Kovalev, Adonis Stevenson and Artur Beterbiev, but I don’t think it’s ever going to happen. That’s my prediction. I bet I’m right too. I see Golovkin staying right where he’s at in the 160lb division and having a long run, mostly because the division is completely dead in terms of talent.