Gennady “GGG” Golovkin: The Smartest Man in the Room

By Angel Flowers: Middleweight kingpin Gennady “GGG” Golovkin has been criticized by others in the past including this writer but it turns out he is one of the smartest man in boxing. He has great management and his boxing choices cannot be taken for granted after what has happened recently in the boxing world.

GGG once complained he would fight anyone and was then challenged by then challenged by former super middleweight champion Andre Ward. GGG avoided that fight and after what the boxing world saw what happened to Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, I can’t blame him. The 34-year-old Kovalev is a bigger, stronger, faster and slightly younger version of the 35-year-old Golovkin.

None of that mattered when Kovalev was hit in the head by Ward’s right hand that left him running, stumbling and hugging Ward until the referee Tony Weeks couldn’t bear to see him take so much punishments from body shots. That could have easily been GGG in there fighting Ward, a man with a lot more skill than Daniel Jacobs who he struggled against. Instead of taking the Ward fight GGG took a fight that makes a lot more sense business wise.

After Andre Ward grew tired of waiting for Golovkin, GGG fought the then IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in a fight that made good sense. He fought a naturally smaller man from two weight classes down and earned a career payday in beating Ezekiel Brook. This has been a trend for Golovkin fighting or wanting to fight former welterweights, he has called out Floyd Mayweather who ended his career at welterweight and is currently scheduled to fight former NABF Welterweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

To be fair, Alvarez is currently the WBO super welterweight champion, still a weight class below Golovkin. Golovkin is scheduled to make another career payday against the former NABF welterweight champ, a fight that is a win-win situation for him.

I can see Golovkin fighting for another 10 or 15 years if he keeps up the current trend by fighting welterweights at the middleweight limit. I can see him fighting maybe Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner or even Amir Khan, smaller men with drawing power. I don’t see Pacquiao taking the fight from Golovkin; although I am sure Golovkin would welcome it. Pacquiao has been in with legends and Golovkin’s biggest win was against a man two weight classes smaller in Brook. I don’t see Golovkin ever fighting Keith Thurman or Errol Spence. They are not well known enough and cannot bring in the kind of money he could make fighting other welterweights. Golovkin’s promoters are light years ahead of Kathy Duva or Golden Boy.

Golden Boy Promotions has made some questionable decisions regarding their star boxer Alvarez. They sacrificed a young Alvarez to fight the pound for pound champion in Floyd Mayweather. After that they had him fight two high risk no reward fights in Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout. This could have been Canelo letting his Mexican pride get in the way of common sense in fighting those dangerous fights as well as going up in weight to fight former middleweight champions Miguel Cotto and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.. Kathy Duva who has a decent boxing mind made a miscue when she pitted her fighter Kovalev against Ward, a man who in his prime was considered #2 pound for pound ahead of guys like a prime Manny Pacquiao.

In the first fight with Ward, Kovalev gassed out and got beat. Main Events promoter Kathy Duva should have just took her losses and maneuvered Kovalev against either cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew or set up a fight with Adonis Stevenson. Instead she put him in against Ward again despite all the odds makers saying Ward would win easily and got her man knocked out.

If GGG’s was in charge of Kovalev, I believe he would still have his light heavyweight titles and even more money. Kovalev would have fought Billy Joe Saunders, Andy Lee or even Chris Eubank Jr., smaller men with big names. I think after his boxing career is over, Golovkin should take the Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya route and transition into promoting. Men like Kovalev and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez need someone to steer them to clear waters even when their heart is leading them towards the waterfalls and whirlpools, I think GGG could be that man.