By Angel Flowers: We are now firmly in 2018. 2017 had some fights but still left much to be desired. Fights that should have been made years ago are still up in the air thanks to all the faux warriors running around the division. These are the men who run off at the mouth about how they want to fight the best, but then run and hide when the fights have a chance of being made. Often these men are caught in their web of lies that their fans let them get away with, the fighters themselves make all kinds of excuses about why a particular fight couldn’t happen when in reality they are just scared of competition. Below are the undisputed hide and seek champions of the boxing world.
ANTHONY JOSHUA
Anthony Joshua could be Mo Farah’s running buddy the way he has ducked and dodged opponents. Deontay Wilder has come out and repeatedly asked for a match. All last year Joshua did his best Usain Bolt impersonation by either refusing to mention Wilder or claim he wants the fight to marinate a little more which is British code for, ‘I am not ever going to fight that man.’ Whenever Tyson Fury gets back into shape, I expect Joshua to dodge him as well. Joshua had a life and death fight with an old Wladimir Klitschko while Fury toyed with the guy. Joshua does not want to risk being knocked unconscious by Wilder or embarrassed by Fury. The fights I expect Joshua to make in 2018 is Joseph Parker, Lucas Browne and over-the-hill Alexander Povetkin. This time next year he will still be hiding from Fury and Wilder but his hide and seek skills need to be raised to compete with the next individual.
ADONIS STEVENSON
Adonis Stevenson only has one name on his list, Sergey Kovalev. Stevenson is not afraid of taking on anyone else in the light heavyweight division except that man. I am not sure what it is about Kovalev that makes Stevenson hide the way he does but his actions really are a slap in the face of boxing. Andre Ward proved Kovalev was not the world beater he seemed. No matter what you think of his fights with Ward, Ward proved Kovalev could struggle to knock someone out and could be bullied. Despite this, Stevenson still refuses to fight Kovalev. Kovalev has been on record many times calling Stevenson all kinds of expletives. Stevenson does have a tough fight ahead of him with Badou Jack, but that fight doesn’t matter. Stevenson could fight every single boxer in the cruiserweight and heavyweight division but that does not throw and shade on the fact he is scared of Kovalev.
KEITH THURMAN
Two years ago, I would have thought it would be insane to put Thurman on this list. He was a world beater and in my eyes the most dominant welterweight on the planet. Now Keith Thurman has lost his punch somewhat and has adopted a hit and run style of fighting instead of being up in his opponent’s face and getting the knockout. We saw him run away from Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia during their fights. I am not knocking the man on his fighting style because he won. His problem now though is that he has two fighters in his division that are faster and slicker than he is. Errol Spence has been trying to make the fight with Thurman. Before Spence moved up in weight, Thurman had said he wanted all the belts. Now though Thurman has been hiding like a child with bad marks on his report card hides from his parents. Thurman refuses to fight Spence and has made countless excuses about the money not being there or Spence not being a big name. These are the same excuses Thurman called weak when he was begging Floyd Mayweather for a fight. Mayweather said Thurman had no name and couldn’t bring in money, Mayweather was correct, although Thurman thought otherwise. Thurman though is not a significantly bigger name than Spence; any fight between them should be 50/50 but Thurman is scared. The other fighter Thurman will never compete against in Terrence Crawford. Crawford is the newest big dog in the welterweight division. I don’t expect him or Spence to run from each other or anyone else. Thurman though will dodge Crawford like he owes him money he can’t repay. I expect Thurman to run and stay hidden from both Crawford and Spence. In 2018, I expect him to fight guys like, Tewa Kiram, Lucas Matthysse or David Avanesyan instead.
GENNADY GOLOVKIN
Golovkin has been hiding out from practically the entire light and super middleweight division. Golovkin has stated he was willing to up or down in weight. He stalked Mayweather like a gold digger on a millionaire and made the mistake of saying he would go down to 154. The light middleweights all wanted to fight him, and he declined, since his real target was a fight with the welterweight at the light middle weight limit. The men at super middleweight thought it was tasteless for Golovkin to go after lighter men and called him out, Gilberto Ramirez and Andre Ward to name a few. Golovkin then backpedaled and claimed he wanted to unify the middleweight title. WBO middleweight champion Billy Jo Saunders has been calling out Golovkin for years now. At first, I admit I that I thought Saunders would not stand a chance. I thought Golovkin should just whip Saunders and call it a day. After all, Golovkin was in reach of his goal. Instead, Golovkin chose to fight Kell Brook, who was noticeably smaller than he was, since Brook came up from welterweight and Saul Alvarez who came up from light middleweight. Once Golovkin got into the ring with those two, it was obvious he was the bigger man. Brook was more skilled but just could not keep the much larger man off him. Fighting Saunders though would expose Golovkin. Saunders is an actual middleweight and is a fast, slick boxer. The way Saunders toyed with David Lemieux made it obvious that he had been underestimated by everyone except one person, Golovkin. I believe Golovkin knew what Saunders was about, which is the reason he has been scared to fight him. Golovkin could have fought him before he fought Brook. Golovkin could have fought him before he fought Daniel Jacobs. While Jacobs was the top contender, the governing body would have stepped aside for a unification fight. Golovkin could have even fought him before and after Alvarez. After all, if he just wanted money, he got that in the first Alvarez fight. Golovkin knew that Alvarez only fights on the big Mexican holidays. Golovkin could have fought Saunders in December, but declined because he did not want any of what David Lemieux received.
These fighters should change professions. Their skill set is more suited to the 4X100 relay than it is to boxing. It is a shame for grown men to run scared from other grown men, especially when talking like they are super heroes. People like Golovkin have children that look up to him. He should be teaching them to challenge adversity, instead of running scared.