By Allan Fox: Middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez believes that superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. is totally obsessed with Golovkin with the way that he’s talking about his constantly. Mayweather recently said that he thinks that he would have beaten Golovkin if he had fought him.
Mayweather also believes that welterweight Kell Brook “exposed” Golovkin last September despite the fact that he was knocked out in the 5th round by the Kazakhstan fighter. Brook was taking terrible punishment in the 5th round from Golovkin, and needed saving by his trainer Dominic Ingle, who threw in the towel to keep Brook from being knocked out. Brook ended up with a broken right eye socket from his troubles.
It’s hard to imagine Mayweather, 39, wanting to come out of retirement to take a risky fight against Golovkin. Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs) is unbeaten, and he would be risking his perfect record that he spent years building with good match-making if he were to take on Golovkin. Would Mayweather be willing to risk his unblemished record in a fight against a knockout artist like Golovkin? It’s highly unlikely.
While Mayweather has taken on and beaten the equally big Saul Canelo Alvarez in the past, it’s a different story in facing a fighter like Golovkin. Mayweather keeps saying that Golovkin should move up to 168, but he’s not saying the same thing about Canelo, who is rumored to be heavier than Golovkin in the mid-170s after he rehydrates for his fights. Why isn’t Mayweather telling Canelo that he needs to move up to super middleweight or light heavyweight to fight Badou Jack and Andre Ward?
Abel Sanchez said this to Fighthype.com about Mayweather’s recent comments about Golovkin being exposed in his fight against Kell Brook on September 10:
“He seems to be talking so much about Triple G,” said Sanchez about Mayweather talking about Golovkin a great deal lately. “I think that he’s [Golovkin] getting under his skin. I don’t know why. Floyd, being the great fighter that he is and with the history and the record that he has, Triple G should not be one of his worries, unless he comes back and wants to fight him. As far as moving up, there’s still some unfinished business [at middleweight], and there’s really no one up there at 168 pounds that’s lucrative enough to move up to fight. We have responsibilities at 160, and he’s going to take care of them first.”
Some boxing fans believe that Mayweather is talking so much about Golovkin because he’s jealous of him, because he’s getting a great deal of positive press from the media. The fans seem to love GGG. When you compare the type of love that Golovkin gets from the fans and the media to the attention that is shown to Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez, it appears that Golovkin overwhelmingly gets the more positive press and appreciation from the fans. The question is does this bother Mayweather? Is that why he’s talking so much about Golovkin instead of talking about other fighters not named Golovkin? I don’t know. If Mayweather wanted to get the positive comments from fans and the media given to himself, then he might want to come out of retirement and take on Golovkin so that he could prove his theory that he would beat him. It’s one thing saying you’d beat Golovkin and another thing entirely going out and trying to prove it.
If nothing else, Mayweather would win the respect from boxing fans and the media by taking on Golovkin. It would be huge news if Mayweather took the fight with Golovkin, because he’s the last one in the world that anyone would think that Mayweather would ever fight. Mayweather would show a lot of courage in taking the fight with Triple G. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mayweather made $100 million by fighting Golovkin, because he could take the larger cut of the financial pie without Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler asking for parity in the negotiations.
In response to the comment from Mayweather that he would have beaten Triple G, Sanchez said, “I think he had better fighter him [Golovkin] now before Triple G learns anymore. He may beat him then, huh? All coaches and all fighters have a dream fight, and for Triple G, not only now, but in the past also, has always been Floyd Mayweather. He’d be willing to drop down to 154 pounds for Mayweather, but nobody else. That’s his dream fight. Whether that happens or not, who knows? But Floyd seems to be consumed with talking about Triple G that maybe he’s thinking about it. I don’t know, but that’s up to Floyd,” said Sanchez.
It’s hard to imagine Mayweather beating Golovkin. Mayweather is made for Golovkin with the way he likes to back up and rest up against the ropes. That style of fighting has worked for Mayweather in the last part of his career to beat guys like Canelo, Marcos Maidana and Manny Pacquiao. However, if Mayweather backed up against the ropes against Golovkin and tried his shoulder roll bit, Golovkin would take his head off with a left hook.
Mayweather might dodge some of the shots, but eventually one of them would get through, and something would break. Mayweather would not be able to fight with his back against the ropes against Golovkin if he wanted to have a chance of winning. Mayweather would have it tough for 12 rounds, because he would be forced to run the entire time to keep from getting taken out by one of Golovkin’s big power shots.
