By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya says that Gennadiy Golovkin is someone he’s interested in fighting for his comeback match in the first quarter of 2021.
It’s a longshot at best for the aging promoter De La Hoya to try and convince GGG to fight him next year. If there weren’t a potential third fight against Canelo Alvarez for Golovkin, De La Hoya would have a decent shot at getting a fight against him.
But the fact remains, Golovkin and Canelo could be fighting next May on DAZN, and both will make a lot of money for that fight. In other words, Golovkin doesn’t need De La Hoya.
The fighters that De La Hoya should be calling out are Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao. This is right up Mayweather’s alley to fight De La Hoya again. They could make it an exhibition match and peddle it to the public at a price tag of $100 per household on pay-per-view. Good luck with that.
De La Hoya last fought in 2008, and he would have to shed some pounds for him to get in fighting shape to face GGG or whoever. For some reason, De La Hoya only wants to fight a top fighter for his comeback rather than a journeyman or a regular contender to build his confidence.
De La Hoya’s comeback talk has ‘money grab’ written all over it, but that’s for the public to decide. If they think De La Hoya is just coming back for the money, they won’t bother watching it
De La Hoya coming back in early 2021
The 47-year-old De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) is still serious about wanting to return to the ring after 12 years of living the easy life in retirement.
Interestingly, De La Hoya isn’t talking about wanting to take a tune-up the way that normal fighters do when returning to the ring after many years.
De La Hoya wants to go straight into a big fight against a top fighter like GGG without any warm-up, which is obviously strange, but this is what he wants.
If money is the main reason for De La Hoya making a comeback, it makes sense for him to call out the 38-year-old IBF middleweight champion Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs).
DAZN would likely jump at the idea of GGG facing De La Hoya, even though it would a circus level fight.
“I’m looking to make a comeback first quarter next year, real fight. Regarding opponents, somebody today mentioned somebody that really intrigued me,” said De La Hoya to The Ak & Barak Show @SiriusXMBoxing.
“I’ll tell you, I mean guys like GGG. Guys with that style I took apart no problem. We’ll see.”
GGG fighting Szeremeta on December 18th
“I think the two tough fights against Canelo took something out of Gennadiy Golovkin that I don’t think he gets back,” said Chris Mannix.
“He now goes from being a heavy favorite against anyone he gets in the ring with to being at best an underdog. GGG will fight Kamil Szeremeta on December 18th.
“This will be Golovkin’s first fight in over a year, and the middleweight champion turned 38 back in April. Is Gennadiy Golovkin still a threat to the top middleweights?”
“Yes, and it’s funny how we start questioning this monster, and it wasn’t even a bad performance, but it was one where you seen him hurt,” said Sergio Mora.
“You finally seen Superman get rocked, and you think he’s done. You look at his age; he’s 38; he doesn’t have his legs. Power is the last thing to go. He never relied on his legs.
“Yes, he’s still going to be a threat, and yes, he’s going to be still going to be a devastating puncher. All we need to do is see it against another opponent.
“If he knocks out Szeremeta like he did Steve Rolls, he’s back in business. ‘The Big Drama Show’ returns, It’s power, man; people love knockouts. Once he gets it, people forget about the bad performances.”
GGG wasn’t hurt by headshots from Derevyanchenko. They were body shots, and he definitely struggled with them.
What really made Golovkin look bad was how he was outworked by Derevyanchenko most of the fight, especially in the later rounds. Although GGG was landing big shots, he was frequently missing with punches that would have done a lot of damage to Derevyanchenko if he’d connected.
Derevyanchenko was still beaten up badly and was a bleeding mess at the end of the fight. You can argue that the punishment Derevyanchenko took against Golovkin was one of the reasons he performed so poorly against Jermall Charlo in his last match.
The Canelo fights took a lot out of Golovkin
“I’m not so sure because he’s 38-years-old, and in recent fights, he’s been getting hit a lot more than he used to,” said Mannix about Golovkin.
“Go back to Canelo part 2, where he was hit a lot by Canelo Alvarez. Canelo walked through his power and landed some big shots on him. Fast forward to Steve Rolls.
Yes, Golovkin picked up a knockout in that fight, but Rolls got to him a few times, especially in the second round, where Rolls was definitely an inferior opponent to Golovkin.
“And then against a guy like Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Derevyanchenko hurt him. That was the first time I remember seeing Gennadiy Golovkin hurt, and he was hurt by Derevyanchenko.
“So I think he will be a strong favorite against Kamil Szeremeta, but when I look forward to a third fight with Canelo or a fight against Demetrius Andrade or a rematch against Daniel Jacobs or a fight against Jermall Charlo, I wouldn’t make Golovkin the favorite in any of those fights.
“I wouldn’t say that as recently as two years ago. Two years ago, he was still a middleweight destroyer.
“I think those two Canelo fights took something out of Golovkin and left him more vulnerable to those top middleweights.”
It’s quite obvious that Golovkin hasn’t looked spectacular in his two fights since his loss to Canelo in 2018.
Golovkin was getting hammered at times in his fight against Steve Rolls last year, and the aforementioned Derevyanchenko came close to beating him. But on the positive side, there’s nothing wrong with Golovkin’s punching power.
He’s still just as powerful as he’s always been. The only drop off is his hand speed and work rate. They both appear to be less than what they used to be.
Derevyanchenko hurt GGG last year
“Look, you just repeated exactly what I said,” Mora said. “He’s 38-years-old, and he got hurt. That’s the only thing people are thinking about right now [about Golovkin].
“They’re focusing on the fact that he’s 38, and you seen him hurt to the body against Derevyanchenko, and he’s a strong, elite fighter. He’s not a champion, but he fights and gives everything he has on a championship level.
“Let him have another Steve Rolls type of performance. Let him start destroying people like he was on the way up. He wasn’t knocking out champions.
“He was knocking out these types of contenders. Let him keep doing that, and then we’re going to erase everything that happened in the past. That’s exactly how boxing works with short-term memory with one great performance.”
“Okay, would you make him a favorite against any of the top middleweights?” Mannix asked about Golovkin.
“No, because I’m not a bookmaker, but he will be a threat,” said Mora about GGG. “You ask me if he’s going to be a threat. He’s going to be a threat against all these middleweights because he has power.”
Golovkin would have been better off if he’d boxed Derevyanchenko more rather than slugged because he was getting the better of the action when he was on the outside. Derevanchenko was able to close the distance and work on Golovkin’s midsection in close.
Golovkin would be an underdog against top 160-pounders
“The point is, he goes from being a heavy favorite against virtually everyone I mentioned to being an underdog, and that’s my whole point,” said Mannix about Gennadiy.
“We’ve seen tough fights take something out of fighters. I think that tough fight against Golovkin took something out of Derevyanchenko in his fight Jermall Charlo.
“I think the two tough fights against Canelo took something out of Gennadiy Golovkin that he’s not going to get back. On top of that, I never loved the pairing with [trainer] Johnathon Banks.
“I never understood why he would go away from Abel Sanchez, who got him to that level, and who’s only blemish on that resume was a close loss to Canelo Alvarez, arguably a top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
“You bring in Johnathon Banks, and Banks is a top trainer, don’t get me wrong, but he’s trying to do different things with Golovkin. I don’t think that you do that to a fighter at this stage in their careers.
“If I was Golovkin and money seemed to be the primary issue that broke up him and Abel Sanchez, I would have figured that part of it out and maintained a consistent camp that’s been a successful camp throughout my entire career.”
Against Canelo, Demetrius Andrade, and Jermall Charlo, Golovkin would likely be the underdog. Golovkin may beat Charlo and Andrade, but it would be difficult for him to get a decision against Canelo.
Gennadiy showed vulnerability against Monroe
“Listen, 10% of a $100 million is a lot of money to be giving away if your Golovkin,” said Mora about GGG severing ties with trainer Abel Sanchez.
“It was strictly a business choice. And it was disloyalty, and I don’t agree with it, but this was neither here nor there. It was a business decision. But we’ve seen Golovkin somewhat struggle with boxers.
“I’m thinking right now while you’re talking. Willie Monroe was having success, and this was the prime Golovkin, the destructive Golovkin, but he’s human.
“He’s not a machine, and if he was a machine, all machines break down at one point or another. I give him a break because he still has power. I still have faith in him with the best.”