INQUISITR.COM / Sports

Gennady Golovkin Is Too Big For Boxing

By Colin Fredericson
Published on: 07:48 PST, Apr 23, 2016

Gennady Golovkin is already a boxing legend. But weird as it is, the fact that Gennady Golovkin can’t get a fight with a more established boxer is keeping his exceptional career a secret from the general public. Golovkin is taking on Dominic Wade tonight in Inglewood, California. Though it should be a guaranteed win for the 34-year-old boxer from Kazakhstan, it will do just a little to boost his profile. Golovkin needs a Floyd Mayweather-level opponent, someone who has name recognition beyond the world of boxing, to get the opportunities he is seeking in boxing. But as The Guardian reports, there are few opponents willing to entertain him.

Since turning professional and fighting in Germany and other parts of the world, Golovkin has remained undefeated at the middleweight class. Of his 34 wins, 31 are knockouts. He is too intimidating to get bigger fights. No superstar boxer wants to find themselves on the ground via a knockout punch from Triple G. potential opponents like Canelo Alvarez aren’t exactly lining up to fight him. A fighter who is putting his career on the line to fight boxing’s hidden secret wants to make sure he will make a lot of profit on the fight. Despite being too intimidating to actually draw any sort of decent opponents, Gennady’s name is slowly creeping out there.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported a statement by Alvarez’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, on why he isn’t rushing to put his fighter in the ring with Triple G.

“As a promoter, I want it to be the biggest event in the history of this sport, to attract fans and to bring back the fans that we lost when people witnessed Manny Pacquiao versus Mayweather.”

Even Floyd Mayweather is trying to shrug off a battle with Gennady. Mayweather mentioned the weight difference as being an issue with a potential fight, but he still left the door open. He wants Golovkin to challenge and defeat Andre Ward before he’ll consider coming out of retirement to fight. If Mayweather’s business acumen is understood here, he wants a fight with Golovkin to be profitable. Fighting Andre Ward first might raise Golovkin’s profile just enough to pique the interest of people who are not just hardcore boxing fans by the time he fights Mayweather. That could definitely work in both Mayweather and Golovkin’s favor.

Even if Golovkin were to lose a fight with Ward or Mayweather, it would still work in his favor. He can’t get the fights he wants now, so a loss would prove that he isn’t the indestructible fortress he seems. Mayweather might also be trying to calculate if Gennady can be beaten and would for sure be watching the Ward fight closely. Mayweather has never himself fought Ward and said he would only consider a fight with Danny Garcia. Besides his flawless boxing record, Andre Ward has the distinction of acting in a small role for last year’s hit Rocky spinoff, Creed.

Gennady Golovkin’s manager, Abel Sanchez, doesn’t think a fight with Andre Ward will be a big enough payday for the trouble it would take to jump weight classes. Golovkin would have to bulk up for Ward at light heavyweight/super middleweight and then slim down for Mayweather. Sanchez would prefer that Golovkin first capture all the belts he can at his current weight class. The problem now is that his major potential opponents might be waiting for him to get old and show some weakness before he can get the big fights that seem to avoid him.

But Gennady has indeed done well if you look at his circumstances. He only moved to the United States a few years ago. The timing is right, and 2016 might be Gennady Golovkin’s year, as Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao slowly step out of the spotlight.

[Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images]

Share this article: Gennady Golovkin Is Too Big For Boxing
Floyd Mayweather Canelo Alvarez Gennady Golovkin
More from Inquisitr