By Jeff Aranow: Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) weighed in at 160 pounds and his opponent Vanes ‘The Nightmare’ Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) weighed in at 159.6 lbs. for their fight this Saturday night for their “Mexican Style 2” card at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
(Photo credit: World Boxing Council)
Martirosyan, 32, has never been knocked out before during his career. Martirosyan is a 154 pounder who has been inactive for 2 years now. If GGG doesn’t TKO Martirosyan, it’s going to hurt his popularity because this is a mismatch on paper. Martirosyan has never come close to being hurt during his 13-year pro career, and GGG is surely going to become the first to do it if he continues to fight the way he’s been in his last two matches against Saul Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs.
If Golovkin can stop him for the first time, it’ll look good. However, if Golovkin fails to knockout Martirosyan, he could see his star power diminish a little more than it has after his last two fights against Alvarez and Jacobs. GGG failed to knockout those 2, and he had to settle for a close decision of Jacobs and a draw against Canelo, which some fans felt he was lucky to get. The Canelo-GGG fight was in Las Vegas, last September and that’s where Canelo has a huge fan base.
For Golovkin to escape criticism, he really needs to fight in the Mexican style that he always talks about. That means he needs to forget about his jab and go after Martirosyan if he wants to knockout him out.
Golovkin’s 23 knockout streak ended last year against Jacobs. There was talk that GGG would restart the streak with his fight against Canelo last September, but he failed to hurt him.
Golovkin surprised a lot of people this week when he said that he only believes there’s a 10% chance of his rematch with Saul Canelo Alvarez taking place in September. Golden Boy promotions president Eric Gomez immediately said he thinks Golovkin is scared of a rematch with the 27-year-old Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs), and that they have other options available to them for September if GGG doesn’t want to take the fight. Loeffler was quick to try and defuse the situation by saying that GGG is wound up over everything that happened, and he sees it as not a problem working out a deal for the rematch.
Loeffler isn’t the one that has to take the shots from Canelo. It’s understandable why GGG would be upset and doubtful whether a rematch with Canelo will be taking place. If Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) is confident that Canelo is a clean fighter, then he’s not going to take the fight if there isn’t proof that he’s being tested continuously during the last 4 months of his 6-month suspension he was given by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. There’s nothing being said about Canelo’s testing since early April. Golovkin has concerns, which is perfectly understandable. Canelo’s two positive tests for the potent performance enhancing substance clenbuterol has him unhappy about it.
“I’m not sure he expressed himself exactly the right way,” Loeffler said to Yahoo Sports News in talking about Golovkin. “I don’t know that he truly feels the odds of the fight happening are just 10 percent…I think he still wants it. My job is to get with Eric and figure out a way to get it done. It shouldn’t be as complicated as it was, so if Gennady is successful on Saturday, we should be able to do it.”
Loeffler needs to be proactive and make sure he has assurances that Canelo is being drug tested right now up until the start of training camp for the September 15 rematch against GGG. It’s no good if Canelo has 3 months of no testing before he starts training camp. That’s a problem that GGG would be upset about. If Loeffler can calm Golovkin down by making sure Canelo gets testing done starting now rather than in August, it would likely help him feel a lot more confident about the fight taking place.
If Canelo doesn’t face Golovkin in September, he could take a fight with Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan or David Lemieux. Canelo would be in the same boat GGG is in now if he agrees to a fight with Lemieux or O’Sullivan. Those are not PPV worthy opponents. Golden Boy can justify Canelo taking a soft opponent like O’Sullivan as it being a tune-up fight for him.
The boxing public will let Canelo take a soft fighter in September, but if he continues to face O’Sullivan level opposition instead of GGG, Jermall Charlo, Sergey Derevyanchenko or Daniel Jacobs, the fans are going to lose interest in him. With Canelo testing positive for clenbuterol, it’s important that he show the boxing public that he’s for real by taking on the best possible opposition and proving that he can beat the best without controversy and without testing positive for PEDs.
“It’s true that Gennady made a lot of concessions and the negotiations did favor Canelo for the rematch, but Gennady wanted the fight and so he made the concessions to get it done,” Loeffler said.
Loeffler should not give too many concessions, because Golovkin has already been inconvenienced with Canelo testing positive twice for clenbuterol and dropping out of the fight. Golovkin would be making so much more money in the rematch with Canelo if the judges had given him the decision last September. The scoring for the first fight was a real head-shaker. One judge gives it to Canelo 10 rounds to 2, and another judge sees it as an even fight. That same judge gave Canelo round 7. That was Golovkin’s best round of the fight by a mile, and yet that judge gave it to Canelo. Those two judges cost Golovkin a lot of money with the way they scored the fight. Golovkin might want to fight a different style in the rematch with Canelo by making sure that there isn’t another controversial decision. Golovkin can’t do that if he insists on boxing Canelo instead of looking to turn him into knockout victim number 34.
