Golovkin needs to step up to be an all-time great

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Gennady GolovkinGabriel Rosado puts it all on the line in the ring and that also applies to his demeanor outside the ring when speaking about the hottest issues that arise in the sport.

Much has been said about a potential fight between Gennady Golovkin and Andre Ward falling through at the negotiating stage because of weight disagreements, with Golovkin’s team requesting a catch-weight of 164-pounds, while Andre Ward outright rejecting the offer, given that Golovkin had offered to fight the now retired Carl Froch and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at the super-middleweight limit of 168-pounds.

Rosado, who was stopped by Golovkin in 2013, described the situation to Fight Hype as “funny.”

“He [Golovkin] wants to go to 154 to fight Floyd [Mayweather Jr], but he don’t want to go to 168 to fight Andre Ward,” Rosado said. “That sounds funny to me. You’re trying to make Ward drain himself out so you can have an advantage. Come on, Ward can’t make 164. If you’re talking about Floyd at 154, why wouldn’t you fight the champion at 68, which is Ward.”

It is understandable why Golovkin wants a catch-weight. Ward last fought Paul Smith at a catch-weight of 172-pounds, and could be fighting light-heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev in the near future.

The Ward-Smith catch-weight is no big deal because both fight at 168, so there’s no draining involved. However, Ward, who walks around at 180 or more, would have to drain considerably to make 164.

The WBA Super World super-middleweight champ hasn’t weighed below 166 since November 2006 when he fought Derrick Findley.

Like Bernard Hopkins said, the greatest fighters have all done something that people didn’t expect them to do – let alone accomplish. Hopkins didn’t need a catch-weight to dismantle Antonio Tarver in 2006.

When Hopkins moved up to 175 to face an Antonio Tarver that walks around at 200-plus pounds, people thought Hopkins was insane and was going to get killed, hence the Chuck Norris autobiography titled “Against All Odds,” in which a part of the book was dedicated to two morons who thought Chuck Norris was a fake, whipped out a couple of large pocketknives, and left with severely broken arms, and stab wounds.

Some of you are probably wondering why I chose Chuck Norris as an example. While it appeared that he had his back up against the wall, he showed who the better fighter was – clearly – and Hopkins showed Tarver that size doesn’t mean everything in boxing. He outsmarted and beat Tarver to the punch all night.

Gennady Golovkin has yet to be tested to that degree and until he does, he’s only going to be known as ‘a great fighter,’ but an all-time great is an honor that very few fighters have been bestowed with. That can be accomplished if he doesn’t make excuses to make catch-weights and beats Andre Ward at 168, a division that the American has reigned superior over since 2009.

When Golovkin fights David Lemieux on Oct. 17 from the Madison Square Garden in New York, it will be his first test against a guy who can challenge him in the power department.

We know Golovkin’s shots to the body are pretty devastating, but will he be able to take the same kind of punishment?

We’ll find out when it all goes down on HBO, and hopefully this will lead the Kazakh to take the steps of some of the all-time greats, and attempt to accomplish something in the sport that many people are going to say, ‘It can’t be done.’