Tom Hochbaum

Golovkin vs. Alvarez – Round 13

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Image: Golovkin vs. Alvarez - Round 13

By Tom Hochbaum: As announced last week, Gennady Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will meet in Las Vegas on September 15th in a rematch for the Middleweight championship. If you are interested in the purse splits, titles stripped, tests failed, negotiations, or media posturing, do yourself a favor and skip this article. Boxing fans have been inundated with story lines surrounding this fight since the controversial decision of a draw in the first rendition last September. Meanwhile, breakdown of the actual fight seems to have taken a back seat. So it comes as quite the relief to hear each fighters’ camps announce that there will be no press conference or media tour for the rematch. The fighters seem to genuinely dislike each other at this point and the promotion requires little additional build-up ahead of the highly-anticipated rematch.

GGG/Canelo Negotiations on the Ropes – Good for Middleweight Division?

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Image: GGG/Canelo Negotiations on the Ropes - Good for Middleweight Division?

By Tom Hochbaum: Oscar De La Hoya and Eric Gomez have been very vocal about the fact that Gennady Golovkin has made financial demands which render the GGG/Canelo rematch unlikely. This fight not taking place on Mexican Independence weekend this September would be a huge financial blow for each fighter. The sport of boxing needs mainstream interest, and fights like Golovkin vs Canelo II could certainly deliver.

Gennady Golovkin: Three potential opponents for next fight

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1-Golovkin_Wade_AY1J4785By Tom Hochbaum: Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin just fought last weekend, but it wasn’t enough. Triple G did was Triple G does: Brutally knockout a highly ranked Middleweight. This time, it was Dominic Wade. The previously undefeated Wade was coming off of an unimpressive decision victory over Sam Soliman.

While Soliman does have a very awkward style that can make it difficult to look sharp against, the fact the Soliman was the biggest test on Wade’s resume should have been an indication that Wade probably was not ready for GGG. However, with #1 ranked challenger Tureano Johnson suffering an injury, the IBF chose to promote Wade to Golovkin’s mandatory.

Gennady Golovkin’s career: A microcosm of the state of boxing

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golovkin7356By Tom Hochbaum: Unfortunately, the following situation exemplifies the state of the sport of boxing right now: The best fighter in the Middleweight division is not currently considered the lineal champion, and it is not known if he will get a shot at becoming the lineal champ in the near future.

The fighter I am referring to is obviously the undefeated WBA and IBO Middleweight Champion from Kazakhstan, Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin. While it is quite frustrating as a boxing fan to watch an exciting fighter on a 19 fight knockout streak struggle to make fights against the biggest names in the sport, I think it is important not to oversimplify when evaluating the reasons for this.