Canelo shouldn’t fight Golovkin now says Jeff Mayweather

By Boxing News - 01/08/2017 - Comments

Image: Canelo shouldn't fight Golovkin now says Jeff Mayweather

By Eric Baldwin: Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is not in a good position to get a fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez right now, according to Jeff Mayweather. He sees Golovkin as an aging fighter that has less going for him than the younger, more popular Canelo Alvarez. Jeff says that Golovkin can scream and yell all he wants to try and get the fight against Canelo, but it’s not going to help him.

Canelo can decide when, where and why the fight with Triple G will take place, and there’s nothing he can do about it. Jeff says that the age clock is ticking with the soon to be 35-year-old Golovkin, and he’s got to be in a real hurry to try and fight the 26-year-old Canelo. He doesn’t have the luxury of waiting on the fight due to his advancing age.

Jeff says that if the choice were up to him and he were the one managing the career of the Mexican star Canelo, he would have him make as much money as possible fighting no name fighters before he eventually matches him against Golovkin one of these days in the future. Jeff would make sure he waited until Canelo had become super rich before he finally puts him in with GGG. By the time that he would make the fight with Golovkin, it wouldn’t matter if Canelo lost the fight. He would be so rich that a defeat wouldn’t be a big deal.

Jeff doesn’t like the way that Golovkin isn’t willing to move up in weight to fight guys outside of the middleweight division. Jeff sees Golovkin as someone that is not willing to try and become a great fighter by testing himself and going outside of his boundaries to try and make things happen, even at 168.

Jeff Mayweather told Fighthype.com this about Golovkin:

“I’m somewhat sold on Triple G, but I’m not really sold on him,” said Jeff Mayweather about Golovkin. “He’s a great fighter. I’m not going to take that away from him, and I love watching him. He’s great for the middleweight division, but in order to be great, every fighter you see that you consider great, they didn’t stay at one weight class unless they were heavyweight. They always started at a smaller weight class and moved up and proved themselves in one weight class after another. That’s part of being great. But when you’re offered a fight against another fighter that is considered good that’s only eight pounds above you and you don’t take it, it means you’re not even trying to be great. You just want to be a middleweight champion and be dominant, which is nothing wrong with that. I think the fight with him and Danny Jacobs is a great fight. I think Danny Jacobs may have a chance. But really who have you fought? I mean, I can probably name three guys that he’s fought. That’s not a knock against him. That’s not his fault. That’s not his fault that the type of competition to make him a great fighter isn’t there. But like I said, when you want to be great, you step out of your comfort zone. That’s not something that he’s ready to do,” said Jeff Mayweather.

It’s still not too late for Golovkin to move up in weight to 168 and 175 to prove himself in other weight divisions. Golovkin has gotten caught in a game where he’s being made to wait for a fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez and WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders. Golovkin has already given up two years of his career pursuing a fight against Canelo Alvarez. If Golovkin had given up the game and moved up in weight, he likely would have accomplished a lot more with his career in the last two years than he has. Golovkin could have already fought Gilberto Ramirez, Badou Jack, George Groves, Andre Ward and James DeGale. Those fights would have been much bigger than Golovkin’s mismatches against Kell Brook, Dominic Wade, David Lemieux, Martin Murray and Daniel Geale.

Golovkin was interested in facing Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Carl Froch in the super middleweight division. He was willing to go up in weight to fight both of those guys, as they would have been huge fights for the boxing world. Golovkin’s management for whatever reason chose not to pursue a fight against former super middleweight champion Andre Ward when the fight was there to be made. It’s unclear why they didn’t try and negotiate the fight.

In looking at the problems that Ward had in beating IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev recently, Golovkin would have had a good chance of beating Ward with his inside fighting ability. Ward’s outside game wasn’t great against Kovalev. The only thing that separated the two fighters was Ward’s inside boxing skills. Kovalev didn’t do a good job of fighting in close. Golovkin would have done better than Kovalev in dealing with Ward on the inside. Golovkin likes to fight in close, and he’s a vicious body puncher. Hindsight being 20-20, Golovkin’s management should have made the fight with Ward, because Triple G would have had an excellent chance of beating him based on how Ward looked against Kovalev. Ward looked old in that fight, and nothing like the once great fighter he’d been five years earlier.

In speaking about a fight between Golovkin and Canelo, Jeff said, “I think that’s a great match-up, but at the same time, the only reason he wants to fight Canelo is for the money. I ain’t going to say whether he’s going to beat Canelo or not. I’m saying, of course, you’re going to take that fight. It’s just like when Floyd was the cash cow. Who’s not going to fight him? That’s the same situation with Canelo right now. He’s the money guy now. Canelo is young now. He doesn’t have to be in a rush to fight Triple G. Triple G has to be in a rush to fight him, because he doesn’t know when the clock is going to run out on him. The thing is this; he can’t force him [Canelo] to fight him. You can’t make me fight you. I know my worth. I know myself worth over yours. I’ll fight you when I want to. Triple G is 35-years-old. If the fight doesn’t happen in a year or two, you never know. It might be a game plan for Canelo. You don’t have to fight him. It’s the one thing that people don’t understand. Certain fighters don’t have to fight certain fighters if they’re not in the same weight class or if they’re not in the same organization [promotional team]. If I’m WBC champion and the other champion is WBA, we never got to fight. Fans don’t understand that. They don’t understand boxing like that. If Canelo is my fighter, I’m going to maximize his earnings. I’m going to let Canelo beat every dude I’ve never heard of and cash in. Then by the time he fights Triple G, if he loses to Triple G, so what? I’m rich. I’m past rich. I beat everyone else. I did the same thing Triple G did. I just picked out some dude that nobody ever heard of and knocked him out. Canelo is smart too. He started to learn English. He’s starting to be accepted by the whole world. That guy is still young. He still got a long career ahead of him, and Triple G doesn’t. So that’s basically what you’re dealing with. You’re dealing with a guy that can pick and choose when he wants to fight you. You can bark. You can yell. You can scream, but you can’t make him fight you,” said Jeff Mayweather.

Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions appear to be doing just what Jeff Mayweather would be doing by milking his career by matching him against beatable opposition instead of dangerous fighters that could potentially beat him.

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