By Jim Dower: Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) says he’s going to go on the attack immediately on Saturday night when he challenges middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Martirosyan says no one has tried to stand and slug with Golovkin the way that he plans on doing, and he wants to test whether Kazakhstan fighter can handle it. The last fighter that stood and punches with Golovkin for the entire fight was Kassim Ouma in 2011, and it ended badly for him in getting stopped in the 10th round.
Ouma took a lot of punishment in that fight, as did Golovkin. Ouma stayed out of the ring for 2 years after that fight until resuming his career in 2013. Golovkin didn’t dominate Ouma the way that former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor did in in December 2006. At the time that the fight was halted in the 10th, Golovkin was just barely ahead on the scorecards by the scores 87-84, 86-85 and 86-85. Ouma proved that a fighter can stand and fight Golovkin to a standstill if they have the chin to stand up to his punches.
The question is can Martirosyan, 31, do that after being out of the ring for two years, and moving up in weight one division. The weight might not be that much of an issue for Martirosyan in the fight, as Golovkin is the same size for his fights at middleweight as many of the junior middleweights. After Golovkin rehydrates for his fights, he weighs roughly the same as rehydrated junior middleweights Erislandy Lara, Jarrett Hurd and Jermell Charlo.
Golovkin could still make 154 if he wanted to. There’s no reason to though, as the junior middleweight division only has two or three fighters that are good enough for Golovkin to gain attention fighting them. He’s better off at 160, even though he’s outsized by guys like Daniel Jacobs and Jermall Charlo.
”Golovkin is going to taste my right hand and we’re going to see what he does, because I’m going to hit him with another right hand,” Martirosyan said to Fighthub. ”I know he’s going to keep coming forward. I’m not afraid to get hit. What I’ve seen is no one has the guts to stand in front of him and land punches on him,” said Martirosyan.
Golovkin will keep coming forward, but he might not look to engage with Martirosyan to any extent. It will depend on the power that Martirosyan brings on the night. If Martiroyan hits Golovkin with a hard shot in the first round or two, it’s highly likely that he’ll cause him to go defensive and just stay on the outside like he did against Canelo and Jacobs.
Golovkin, 36, has been saying for the longest that he fights with the ‘Mexican style’ when he competes, but we haven’t seen that from him lately since his fight with Kell Brook in 2016. That fight was more of a cat and mouse type of contest with Brook hitting and then running away from Golovkin. Since that fight, Golovkin has stayed at range and used his jab to box his opponents Daniel Jacobs and Saul Canelo Alvarez. It’s not a coincidence that both of those fights were very close. The judges were more impressed with the harder shots that Jacobs and Canelo were landing at times than the jabs from Golovkin. Who knows why Golovkin has changed his fighting style from being a slugger to a pure boxer.
It could be that Golovkin has lost his nerve or perhaps he never was a brave sort when it comes to fighting guys with punching power. Golovkin has fought exactly three big punchers – David Lemieux, Daniel Jacobs and Saul Canelo Alvarez – during his career, and in all three of those fights, he stayed on the outside and jabbed. Golovkin was not looking to slug with any of those fighters. Golovkin stopped Lemieux in the 8th round after hurting him with a body shot, but he wasn’t mixing it up with him at any time in the fight. That was a case of Golovkin moving in and landing a hard single body shot that Lemieux couldn’t take.
”I’m the guy that’s going to do that,” Martirosyan said about his game plan of attacking Golovkin with big right hands. ”It’s also going to answer a lot of questions about him in this fight. We’ll see how he takes my punches. We’ll see how he fights a guy that’s not scared to take his punches, and to fight a guy that’s not afraid to exchange with him,” Martirosyan said.
Golovkin was hit with some big shots by Brook, Canelo and Jacobs, and he took the shots well. Golovkin kept attacking Brook until he forced him to give up in the 5th when he stopped throwing punches. However, Brook was a welterweight and he didn’t have the punching power or the natural size to stand up to Golovkin’s pressure.
Canelo and Jacobs both did, but they weren’t willing to stand and trade with Golovkin until the later rounds of the fight when he faded and lost some steam off of his shots. They weren’t willing to stand in the pocket and trade with GGG in the first 6 rounds, If Martirosyan goes after Golovkin while he’s still fresh, it’s anyone’s guess how that strategy will work for him. Going by the way Golovkin has fought his last two bouts against Canelo and Jacobs, he might move away from Martirosyan and box him.
Hopefully that’s not what happens, because Golovkin has been saying he wants to make it a ‘drama show’ and he wants to use the ‘Mexican style’ of fighting when he gets inside the ring with the California native Martirosyan on May 5. Golovkin is dangerous when he goes after his opponents right off the bat. When GGG last fought in Southern California against his IBF mandatory challenger Dominic Wade, he stopped him in the 2nd round in April 2016. Wade was knocked down once in round 1 and twice in round 2.
Golovkin still has the punching power that he possessed back then, so it could be risky for Martirosyan to punch with him. This is the right time for Martirosyan to test Golovkin’s chin with him coming off 2 consecutive off performances against Canelo and Jacobs. The one constant in both fights was the way Golovkin looked hesitant about letting his hands. You could see that Golovkin was constantly thinking about whether he should throw a punch or not, and most of the time he wouldn’t do it. He would hold back, looking like he was afraid to be countered by Canelo and Jacobs. It’s as if Golovkin didn’t want to be made to look bad by those two fighters if they hit him. Golovkin’s hand speed was not as good as Canelo and Jacobs, so he was always going to be hit by those guys after he let his hands go. Dmitry Pirog didn’t have the hand speed that Jacobs possessed, but he was still willing to hit him hard and take whatever counter-punches in return. Golovkin didn’t want to do that against Jacobs, which turned the fight into a jabbing contest. Golovkin is going to need to go back to his old style of fighting if he wants to beat Martirosyan, Jacobs and Canelo in a conclusive manner, because he’s not going to be able to keep winning for long with his tentative boxing style that he’s been using in his last two fights.
“Because it’s not Mexican style,” Martirosyan said when he asked why he doesn’t try and box GGG instead of slugging with him. “We want Mexican style, baby. It’s Cinco de Mayo. That’s what it’s going to be. It’s going to be two trains. It’s going to answer a lot of questions about Golovkin, I promise you,” Martirosyan said.
Three years ago, Martirosyan would have been a dream opponent for Golovkin to fight, but I’m not sure that’s the case any longer. Golovkin loved to fight guys that were stationary and coming to fight in the past, but he’s changed his mind set in the last two fights. Martirosyan might be the wrong style for Golovkin right now, and it’s possible he could win if he goes the full 12 rounds with the Kazakhstan fighter. If the judges score rounds based on which fighter lands the more meaningful punches, they could give the ‘W’ to Martirosyan instead of Golovkin.
Martirosyan isn’t the type to be content with staying on the outside jabbing for 12 rounds like we’ve been seeing with Golovkin lately. Martirosyan has more of a true warrior’s heart when it comes to fighting, and he would never stand on the outside and peck away with jabs. If Golovkin has lost his nerve to brawl at this point in his career, then Martirosyan could shock the boxing world on Saturday night by outpointing him. It won’t matter that Golovkin lands more shots.
If all he’s connecting with are jabs for the entire fight, then we’re going to see Martirosyan win a lot of rounds with his harder, more meaningful punches. Martirosyan could be Canelo 2.0 on Saturday. The question is has Golovkin learned from the mistakes he made in his last two fights against Canelo or Jacobs. Those fights showed clearly that Golovkin cannot win at the upper level of the middleweight division if he’s afraid to throw power shots, and only willing to jab at range. I think it could come down to whether Golovkin has lost his nerve. It looks like he has, and that gives Martirosyan a very good chance of winning.
Martirosyan can upset Canelo and Golden Boy’s plans for a big money rematch in September with Golovkin. A victory for Martirosyan over Golovkin this Saturday will leave the Canelo-GGG 2 rematch dead in the water.