By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach says he’d be interested his fighter Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) fighting middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) right now after the way he performed in his last fight against Daniel Jacobs. Roach thought Golovkin did enough to win the fight against Jacobs, but he says he was “exposed” in the process of winning the fight. Roach still considers the 34-year-old Golovkin as a very good fighter despite his problems in the ring against Jacobs.
Cotto, 36, hasn’t fought in close to 2 years since his loss to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Roach says they currently don’t have any fighter that they’re speaking to for Cotto’s next fight. If Golovkin is interested in the Cotto fight, then he should start negotiations, says Roach. Since Roach doesn’t do the actual match-making for Cotto, it might be a wasted endeavor for Golovkin to seek out a fight with him. It would be a great fight that would make them both a lot of money if Cotto did choose to face Triple G. He would gain more attention facing Golovkin than he would fighting an inactive Juan Manuel Marquez from the boxing world.
“He got exposed by a good boxer,” said Roach to Villianfy about Golovkin in his fight with Jacobs. “He gave him a little bit of trouble. I still think he won the fight. The decision was in his favor. The knockdown, I think he did enough to win the fight,” said Roach about Golovkin. “I still think he’s one of the best out there. I would fight him, yes. We’re not talking to anyone right now. If he wants to come to the table, we’ll fight him. Lomachenko is probably the best fighter in the world right now,” said Roach about who’s the No.1 pound for pound fighter in boxing.
Golovkin is trying to get a fight against Canelo for September. He also could possibly face Billy Joe Saunders in June, although that fight is starting to look like it’s not going to happen because it could jeopardize the Canelo-Golovkin fight.
“I thought we beat Canelo the first time. I’d like to get a rematch,” said Roach. “Will it happen? I’m not sure,” said Roach.
Canelo clearly beat Cotto in their fight in November 2015. There was a chance that Cotto could win if he had boxed Canelo for the full 12 rounds, but he tried to slug with him in the second half of the fight and he didn’t have the size to do that. Canelo looked like he was 20 pounds heavier on the night of the fight. Cotto rehydrated to 164 pounds for the fight. One can only guess how heavy Canelo was on the night of the fight. Roach thinks Canelo was 185 inside the ring. He spoke about wanting to limit how much Canelo rehydrates after the weigh-in for a future fight, but obviously that would be pretty much impossible to do. Canelo would likely never agree to a strict rehydration limit that would keep him from gaining back a certain amount of water weight.
“Let’s face it; we don’t have time for tune-ups,” said Roach when asked if Cotto will take a tune-up fight.
Cotto fights so rarely that a tune-up bout wouldn’t work for him. He’s not staying active with his career. Part of the problem that Cotto has is he would have to fight the dangerous guys at 154 if he fought the best. If he were to be busy with his career, he would have boxing fans expecting him to fight top fighters from the junior middleweight division like Demetrius Andrade, Jermell Charlo, Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara. It would look strange if Cotto only fought lower level contenders instead of the top guys. Being busy would mean that Cotto would be expected to take on the best. I don’t know if that’s what he wants to still do at this point in his career.
“Not really,” said Robert Garcia to Villianfy whether Golovkin was exposed by Jacobs. “It’s just that people expected him to knockout Jacobs like he’s been knocking everybody out. That’s what everybody expected, and because he didn’t everyone is saying he was exposed. I thought Jacobs had a good shot at beating Triple G, and he almost did. Triple G won, but it was close. In a rematch, he might beat Golovkin. Honestly, I think Canelo could beat Golovkin, but I don’t see them fighting this year. I think they’re going to end up fighting next year. I think Canelo is going to beat Golovkin. The only fight at 168 that makes sense [for Golovkin] is Gilberto Ramirez, and I think Gilberto beats Golovkin too. He’s too big, too smart and too skilled. So I think Zurdo beats Golovkin too. If Andre [Ward] can still make 168 without killing himself and without dehydrating , I think he could beat Golovkin too.
Jacobs would have a hard time beating Golovkin in the rematch without putting his himself in a situation in which he could get hurt. Jacobs won’t win if he moves around the ring and fails to fight Golovkin. Jacobs will need to improve on his attacks as well, because he was getting hit by Golovkin’s power jab frequently when he was coming forward.
“Golovkin in his last two fights, he’s peaked a little bit, let’s be honest,” said Richard Schaefer to Villianfy. “He’s not the same Golovkin we saw a couple of years, right? I think that made the fight even,” said Schaefer about the Golovkin vs. Jacobs fight.
Two years ago, Golovkin was facing weaker opposition than he is now. He probably would have had the same problems with Jacobs in 2015 than he did in their fight on March 18. With the way Golovkin fought, he didn’t attack Jacobs the way he needed to for him to make it an easy fight. Golovkin looked like he was afraid to commit to his shots. He was too quick to back away after he would land. Golovkin was fighting the opposite of how he normally does, and he didn’t look comfortable using that style.