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In light of this past weekend’s devastating display of shock and awe by middleweight world champion Gennady Golvkin, the question remains; is there any boxer in the world today, at or less than 160 pounds, that could derail the Kazakh destroyer?
Dominc Wade came into his challenge of Golovkin’s two world titles, the WBA “Super” and IBF, along with the WBC’s Interim belt, as an undefeated prospect who was the mandatory challenger for the IBF strap of “GGG”.
The 28 year old American left the ring at the Forum in Inglewood, California with the first loss on his record after receiving a two round thrashing at the hands of Golovkin, who barely appeared to break a sweat while battering Wade, 18-1 (12), to the floor three times.
At 34 years of age, Golovkin, 35-0 (32), has now made 15 title defenses over seven years and has crushed his opposition within the distance during 22 consecutive appearance. He clearly is in the prime of his career and no middleweight in the world wants to meet him in the ring, or rather their backers aren’t interested.
Placing Boxing politics/business aside, could anyone out there seriously challenge the king of the hill?
The top name on everyone’s list of prospective Golovkin opponents, WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 46-1-1 (32), has reportedly insisted that Golovkin must make 155 pounds before he will agree to the fight.
As Golovkin’s team have stated a reluctance to go below 160 pounds, don’t count on this one occurring in 2016. Which is probably a good thing, at any weight, for Alvarez, who is defending his title against a welterweight, Amir Khan, on May 7 in Las Vegas.
Alvarez, who has defeated such top names as Miguel Cotto, Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout, but was beaten in a competitive contest by Floyd Mayweather Jr, would probably be the best offensive fighter to square off with Golovkin if they ever do tangle.
However, the only thing that seems to matter against “GGG” is whether or not the boxer in the other corner can remain upright after getting tagged with power shots.
“Canelo”, who turned pro as a light welter, has never weighed in for a contest above 155 pounds and has never fought anyone who could hit like Golovkin, a career middleweight. That could all add up to spell trouble for Alvarez.
Next up is former four weight world champion Miguel Cotto, 40-5 (33), who outboxed Alvarez enroute to losing the WBC title last November but could not hurt the Mexican and certainly had difficulty handling Alvarez’s power shots. The Puerto Rican star would probably face the same basic template against Golovkin but with much worse results.
WBA “Regular” champion Daniel Jacobs, 31-1 (28), looked like a beast in crushing ex-WBO titlist Peter Quillin in just one round this past September but the last time he faced someone world class, Russia’s Dmitry Pirog, Jacobs was completely handled and stopped in 2010 for the vacant WBO title.
Jacobs is a good fighter but probably doesn’t posses the skill set or chin necessary to knock off Golovkin, although his punch power could give the longtime WBA ruler some difficulty along the way.
Perhaps the man with the best (slight) chance of pulling off an upset against Golovkin would be WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders, 23-0 (12).
Saunders certainly doesn’t have the experience of Alvarez, the pure boxing skill of Cotto nor the power punch of Jacobs but the Englishman is a very cagey southpaw who frustrated Andy Lee over 12 rounds to take the Irishman’s WBO belt.
Against Golovkin, Saunders would be in way over his head compared to anyone he’s faced to date, however the lefty did handily defeat top contender Chris Eubank Jr in 2014, and showed exceptional defense to go along with a sharp southpaw offense.
That seems to be the shortlist at middleweight and none of them would be likely to separate the title belts from Golovkin, who would probably have to go up to super middle or even light heavyweight to find an opponent who could withstand his punishment.
