Gennady Golovkin: narrowing down the options

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Gennady GolovkinGennady Golovkin is known as one of the most avoided boxers in the sport. His combination of KO power and technical boxing skill can keep fans intrigued, announcers aware, and boxers confused all at the same time. The man known as GGG has found the unique way of finding a way to the top of many people’s fighter lists without fighting anyone that is currently known as an A-list opponent. Most of it has been helped by some of those top boxers swerving from fighting Golovkin, in Carl Froch words, “Like the plague”.

Golovkin has said from the start that he wants to be the man to unify all the middleweight belts. Despite possibly swaying off for Floyd Mayweather or Carl Froch, he has been steadfast for staying at 160 and unifying all the belts. So far GGG has disposed of all of his opponents as his record stands at an unblemished 34-0 with 31 KOs. He is the current IBF, IBO, interim WBC world Middleweight Champion, as well as the WBA Super world Middleweight champion.

However, there are two champions out there that have belts — Danny Jacobs (WBA Champion) and Canelo Alvarez (WBC Champion) — that Golovkin would love to have, but it won’t be as easy as you might think. For the 1st time in his career, Golovkin might be the one to have to make the decision, and possibly even disappoint fans towards getting the fights the fans want to see and his overall team goal of unifying the middleweight division.

Canelo Alvarez is coming off the biggest win of his career a few weeks ago as he defeated Miguel Cotto by an impressive 12 round unanimous decision. Alvarez and Cotto are the 2 biggest A-Side fighters in the sport, not counting a retired Floyd Mayweather or a soon to be retired Manny Pacquiao. Canelo has said that Golovkin has to come to his weight. Alvarez has fought his last few fights at 155 pounds, but he may be willing to push it to 157 as he seemed to barely make 155 for the Cotto fight.

Golovkin can go the option of saying he will only fight Canelo at 160 pounds, Canelo would eventually get stripped and Golovkin can get the belt that way. However, I think gaining the belt outside the ring doesn’t help the credibility of Golovkin to the naysayers. It also wouldn’t help get what would be the biggest payday of Golovkin’s career. So Golovkin has to make the decision as to if to get the belt on a technicality or submit to Alvarez’s demands, go down a few pounds, and get a big payday, get a big name on his resume, and capture the WBC world Middleweight belt.

The Danny Jacobs situation is even trickier for Golovkin. The WBA will hold their meetings next week in which they will decide what fights they want to mandate as Golovkin is the “Super Champion”, Jacobs is the current title holder, Alfonso Blanco is the interim champion, and there will be a final eliminator this Saturday between Chris Eubank Jr and Spike O’Sullivan. So all in all, the situations involving the numerous WBA titles are very complex to say the least.

Even if it isn’t ordered now the WBA eventually orders a fight between Golovkin and Jacobs, the fight may never see the ring. A fight against Jacobs being turned down may not even be Golovkin’s fault. GGG has a contract with the network HBO that all of his televised fights will be on HBO, Jacobs is managed by Al Haymon and fights on Showtime, if not a national network like NBC. If the promoters for the 2 fighters cannot come to an agreement, it would be forced to a purse bid. In a purse bid, it would be expected for Al Haymon to win the bid, which would kill the fight due to the network differences.

When you take a step back and look at these types of situations as a fan, it can be really frustrating. So many organizations, so many promotions, so many networks, and all of this before you even know if a boxer wants to actually fight another one. It’s the type of situations that cause super fights to be on pause for 5 years. Currently, Golovkin vs. Alvarez would be the biggest fight in the sport, it would sell out Cowboy Stadium, but a fight between GGG and Jacobs would also be a good fight. Hopefully, something can be worked out, but if it doesn’t, we all know what to chalk it up to, it’s boxing.