GGG is a flawed champion

By Angel Flowers - 09/28/2016 - Comments

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By Angel Flowers: Boxing fans already have shown that IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is only a draw on free TV and does not have a pay per view presence. This is because Golovkin has failed to challenge himself and take on the tough fights. Months after criticizing his supposed rival Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for fighting a welterweight in Amir Khan, GGG himself went after Kell Brook, another welterweight.

This is not the first time Golovkin has wanted to fight a welterweight; before he retired he expressed interest in fighting Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. instead of guys closer to his weight. When Golovkin offered to fight Mayweather at 154 pounds, boxers at junior middleweight offered to take him on, most notably Erislandy Lara, the WBA junior middleweight champion.

Golovkin then ran back from those words and stated he only wants all the middleweight titles, that is a decent outlook to have if only he hadn’t opened his mouth earlier.

Currently Golovkin is going in in another direction from the tougher fights, like with former super middleweight champion Andre Ward went up in weight because he got tired of waiting for Golovkin to fight him. Current WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez has expressed interest in the fight but I will be surprised if GGG stops moving away from guys who actually have a chance at beating him. Triple G does want the Canelo fight in his defense, but at a weight Canelo has never fought at. Golovkin would get paid a good amount of money despite having virtually no drawing power in terms of pay-per-view.

Golovkin is simply a good fighter who has been matched carefully during his career. I expect to see more fights for Golovkin against opponents like Willie Monroe, Gabriel Rosado and David Lemieux.

Boxing fans have spoken in the pay-per-view realm with their money and refuse to throw away money with these types of mismatches. if Golovkin wants to be considered great he should do what past great champions have done at almost every weight level.

Taking a look at the great boxers from the last 20 years, one thing they all have in common is that they have all challenged themselves. When Manny Pacquiao could see there were no big matches left in the flyweight division he fought skilled fighters bigger than he was. Pacquiao who is definitely not a natural welterweight fought perhaps the best boxer of his generation in Mayweather. Floyd came up from lightweight and took on many dangerous champions on his way to super stardom. Just looking in the middleweight division, Roy Jones Jr. went from the middleweight champion and worked all the way up to heavyweight where he won the title. Bernard Hopkins was the middleweight champion for a long time and eventually worked his way into light heavyweight champion even taking on the dangerous Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev in the process. Heck, even Canelo went up from 154 to take on the lineal middleweight champion in Miguel Cotto, who himself went up in weight to win the title.

GGG has failed to budge from a couple of pounds despite the fact he would make millions on the fight.

I think this is because he wants to keep his record intact and does not really care what the boxing public thinks despite cries for him to fight Canelo. I believe that Golovkin feels safe and protected at 160 pounds because currently there are no boxers who can meet that weight class and beat him. This is an example of a fighter dodging opponents all the while saying he will fight anyone, just like many boxers do past and present. I think Golovkin will keep the titles for a long time and make a little money but anyone who thinks they are going to see him in a big fight has to wait until someone gets lucky and beats him. Once that happens hopefully we will see the version of Golovkin he claims to be, taking on all comers anytime. Until that happens, I doubt we will see him come out of his shell and unless he has a big name opponent, you will never see him on pay-per-view again.