Quote Originally Posted by Rantcatrat View Post
Let's first make sure we're all on the same page. Ward is one division above GGG. What @imp and @Ron Swanson talked about in another thread that they want to see is the best middleweight in the world go up and fight the best guy in the super middleweight division because there is no one else that can give GGG a good fight in his division, the division below and the division above. Be up front about it: that's a heck of a compliment, gentlemen.

I don't necessarily agree with all of it. I think a Floyd-GGG fight would be tremendous. From a styles point of view, if Lara moved up I also wouldn't mind seeing his style against GGG. Offense versus Defense.

Distilled to its essence though, what @Ron Swanson is also saying is at some point (and he was so confident in GGG's ability that for him it was sometime in 2013) it becomes less-and-less exciting to see GGG beat up good, but-not-great opponents. I don't disagree. It's now reached that point for me. The problem is I don't see an easy solution.

I also agree with @Ron Swanson that the middleweight division isn't great right now. It's not as bad as he makes it out to be, but it's clearly not the featherweight or the flyweight divisions.

So, who does GGG face? Let's assume Ward is out due to contractual disputes with his promoter. Same with Junior. It looks like Froch won't face GGG. Mayweather won't face him. Cotto won't face him. Canelo won't face him until 2016 is what I'm told.

Where does that leave him? To me, there are three satisfying doable fights available to GGG around 160-168 the he could take in the meantime while the Ward/Junior situations works itself out. Murray, Kessler, and Abraham. Do Murray in Monaco in February and Kessler in Denmark or Abraham in Germany later that year. Those aren't the only super middleweights I'd consider, but they have belts, and/or relatively big names.

With the exception of Murray, who is a big middleweight and the only available middleweight I'd want to see GGG in against, the thought process is that if he's going to take on good, but not great fighters, do it in the division above.

Its amazing because now I am actually seeing people posting on other forums about expecting him to go to 154. This shit is really starting to take on a life of its own. Next week 147. How about the other cheese dicks in the division start taking some flack. Whats kid Ovaltine done? The guy is a national embarrassment in two countries. He should be publicly flogged for taking Kid Chocolates name, claiming its out of respect and then being the biggest dandy in the division.

Cotto is not going to fight him and that Alvarez fight in May trumps everything. Even is he wins I think he finally retires. I think Alvarez would fight him but Oscar might not let him. Korobov's people know who he is and will stay clear. Unfortunately the only other present champion or person of "note" that most likely has the balls to fight him is Taylor.

Which leads to another unfortunate truth. Just like the oceans being 90% fished out so it seems is the middleweight division. The other fish it appears are big in their small ponds but small outside it. The Kazak may have to go to 168 but its difficult to say if he fares any better there. Unless its Ward immediately on moving up, he might as well stay at 160. Froch is not going to fight him even if the guy game to Nottingham. Might as well stay at mid and beat Hopkins defense record and wait for the killer Keith Thurmans to move up to 160.

And I really have to take issue with this notion that this is somehow a paper division. Its no weaker then Monzons, Haglers or Hopkins and all three of them made their names on x-welters. Hopkins never fought one elite middle in his entire career save Roy Jones. Monzon either. That guy was fighting guys that were 2 and 9 in his 36th fight. 0 and 2 in his 37th and 3 and 2 in his 38th. Beats up on a couple of old welters in Napoles and Griffith and he's on peoples top 5 atg lists ffs.