Why Is Gennady Golovkin Not Getting That Big Fight?

On the 1st of February, Gennady Golovkin, (28-0 with 25 KO’s), will be taking on Osumanu Adama (22-0 with 16 KO’s) in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Not to discredit the fighter Adama, but “GGG,” as Golovkin is know, should have secured a premium opponent in a bout held at Las Vegas.

Instead, the fighter originating from Kazakhstan but who resides in Germany is getting an obscure opponent in a fight being held away from the mass media market that is America. So what went wrong?

Let’s take a look at the factors that lead to what I call “The Golovkin Snub”.

According to Abel Sanchez, Golovkin’s trainer, his fighter is driven by the pursuit of excellence. In his last 15 fights, Golovkin scored 15 consecutive knockouts. He has an impressive 89% knockout rate that is well documented thanks to statistics released by compubox.

Ever since he started his professional career as a fighter in 2006, Golovkin has earned a reputation as a brawler who is technically sound and has that hard punch that can floor a fighter at any time.

Because of his reputation, there are not too many fighter that are willing to exchange blow for blow with the reigning WBA world middleweight champion, says Sanchez.

That reputation is part of the problem here. There is a lack of substantial fighters who actually want to step into the ring with “GGG” and risk getting knocked out.

In a recent interview in the Assosiated Press, Golovkin said of Sergio Martinez: “he is a very good boxer. Right now, he deserves to be called the middleweight champion of the world. I think I am better, but I do not know that for sure. I would like to fight him to find out.”

The quote refers to Golovkin’s attempts to get a fight with Martinez but to no avail.

It bewilders the mind that the casual American boxing public has yet to know the real stopping power of Gennady Golovkin.

Those who are responsible for marketing “GGG” often talk about him as a pugilist with an aggressive style that leads to knockouts and TKO’s.

That favourable depiction of the man as a fighter is not enough to make him charismatic. There need to be more.

Another reason for the snub has to do with Golovkin’s inability to sell himself in America. His broken English makes it hard to market the fighter and to be honest, the fact that he is a foreigner and not an American works against him.

Not every foreign fighter has that Manny Pacquiao ability to transcend to different markets. Also, the middleweight division, where technical skill is at a premium, has historically had a tremendous following in the United States; though there is a strong bias towards American fighters.

Some analysts have argued that the marketing department at HBO have a hard time promoting Golovkin partly because he hails from a country that isn’t well known to the American mainstream and add to that his poor communication skills in English.

As a result:

“This is a fantastic opportunity for me to challenge boxing’s best,” said Adama in an interview with ESPN. Of course the fighter hailing from Ghana is ecstatic at prospect of facing one of the world’s best fighters in his weight division. However, there is no scenario where Adama should be challenging “GGG” at this point in his career.

Gennady, who is now 31 years old, has said that he made a commitment to staying active while waiting for quality opponents. That means that he is forced to take this bout in Monaco due to a lack of a marketable fight in the United States. That is taking a step back since four of Golovkin’s last five fights have been in U.S. soil and broadcast on HBO.

As much as the network tries to promote Golovkin, it seems to be a difficult venture for HBO to arrange a strategic fight to elevate the status of Gennady in the United States to that of a bonafide superstar.

Some fighters that would be on everyone’s wish list as the next opponent for Golovkin would be Carl Froch, Sergio Martinez, Julio Cesar Chavez or Saul Alvarez.

HBO has confirmed an upcoming date for the next Gennady Golovkin bout. The April 26, 2014 date does not yet have an opponent scheduled.

Should HBO not secure that next level bout for Golovkin, then the question that should be posed is whether or not GGG will ever get that shot at a catalyst fight to elevate him as one of the best middleweight fighters in the world.