Floyd Mayweather, Jr., after dispatching Manny Pacquiao on May 2, says he will fight one last time on September 12. Will his opponent be Gennady Golovkin, the 33-year-old knockout specialist from Kazakhstan? If boxing fans get their way, the answer will be a resounding yes. But whether Mayweather would take that fight is much less certain.
But the all-action, undefeated Golovkin, who has knocked out 30 of his 33 opponents — including the last 20 in a row — is so feared by other top fighters that not only Mayweather has avoided him, but so has middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has also expressed no interest in risking his status, not to mention his chin, against the fighter known as “Triple G.”
Last Saturday, May 16, Golovkin stepped into the ring at the Forum in Los Angeles, California, against Willie Monroe, Jr., who entered the fight with a respectable 19-2 mark. But Golovkin blasted Monroe out inside of six rounds.
To get a taste of Golovkin in action, check out the video of highlights from Saturday’s fight, courtesy of HBO, in the video at the top of this page.
According to the Los Angeles Times , Golovkin — the reigning World Boxing Association and International Boxing Organization middleweight champion — offered to drop down from 160 pounds to 154 specifically for a fight against Mayweather, but the pound-for-pound king’s advisers quickly waved off the possibility of the fight.
Pacquiao was once considered the one fighter on the scene who could realistically challenge Mayweather. That belief was dispelled in their May 2 fight, but only after Mayweather stalled on making the fight with Pacquiao for almost six years.
This time around, Mayweather doesn’t have that luxury. If he fails to take on Golovkin in September, the opportunity is likely gone, at least if Mayweather keeps his word about retiring once and for all after his September fight, the last bout on his contract with the Showtime premium cable network.
“It’s hard fight for us. I know Floyd is very smart, he is businessman,” Golovkin said last week in the lead-up to his fight against Monroe. “He want fight with me? OK, let’s do it.”
While Mayweather has said he knows that the astonishing financial windfall from the Pacquiao fight will be impossible to repeat, Golovkin may simply fail to meet Mayweather’s financial requirements.
The name Gennady Golovkin is not well known outside of the circles of devoted boxing fans, and he drew a decent but unspectacular 12,000 fans to the Forum on Saturday, while the fight drew an average viewership of 1.34 million viewers on HBO, the third-highest audience for a live boxing match on the network this year — meaning that the payday he brings may not be enough for Floyd Mayweather Jr.
[Images: Al Bello/Getty Images]