Opinion: Getting Stuck with Leftovers

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

Do you hear that?

It’s the relative silence that met the announcements regarding the next opponents for Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Andre Ward: Dominic Wade for Golovkin and Sullivan Barrera for Ward. The reason? The general population has no idea who Wade and Barrera are. Instead, many casual fight fans simply referred to them as “bums” and followed that with criticism of “GGG” and Ward for lack of noteworthy opposition.

Meanwhile, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s selection of Amir Khan will get all of the attention despite Khan being an undersized underdog.

The problem with this is that few choices were left for “GGG” and Ward thanks to the lack of recognizable talent in their respective divisions. For Ward, the jump up to light heavyweight in an attempt to take on Sergey Kovalev finds a road with very few recognizable names. If you couple that with being promoted by rap mogul Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports, which is engaged in a cold war with boxing promoter Al Haymon, you are left with even fewer options.

The truth is that Barrera isn’t as bad an opponent as most people think. He’s unbeaten (17-0, 12 KOs) and has notable knockout victories over Karo Murat and Jeff Lacy. He serves as the perfect introduction for Ward into the light heavyweight division. No, he’s not a household name, but who is right now? The division features names like Eleider Alvarez, Andrzej Fonfara and Juergen Braehmer -- not exactly anyone you’d know off the top of your head. Of course, there’s Adonis Stevenson, but he’s promoted by Haymon, and Bernard Hopkins has gone on record saying he would never fight Ward.

The division is so thin that Kovalev knocked out Jean Pascal last March and then got to do it again in January because there really are no recognizable names to fight.

As for Golovkin, his situation is a bit more complicated. Most fighters want to unify the titles, and that’s exactly what “GGG” has set out to do. The current holder of the WBA (Super), IBF, IBO and interim WBC middleweight titles sought to get his hands on the WBO championship, but Billy Joe Saunders decided he should take two fights in the United Kingdom before giving “GGG” the opportunity to knock him out. As for the WBC title, that honor goes to “Canelo,” who is not interested in facing Golovkin at the middleweight title limit of 160 pounds right now. An agreement was struck to allow both fighters to take interim bouts before a proposed September showdown.

What’s left for Golovkin? Not much, and with the IBF ordering “GGG” to face its No. 3-ranked fighter, Wade, Golovkin really was left with no options. It was either face Wade or be stripped of the title. As for Wade, he’s not a bad fighter. Unbeaten with an 18-0 record, Wade’s biggest victory was a tightly contested split decision against Sam Soliman in June. He’s tall with quick hands and a nice jab. No, he’s not expected to win against Golovkin, but honestly, who is at this point?

The rest of the middleweight division is full of names that are either tied to Haymon and Showtime -- “GGG” fights on HBO -- or lack any name recognition whatsoever.

Fans will complain about Ward and Golovkin’s opponents because they want to see the big fights, but it’s certainly not their fault. It’s the fault of boxing and its carousel of politics. That’s the hard part to digest when you are trying to find somebody to blame.

Andreas Hale is a content producer for Jay Z’s LifeandTimes.com and editor-in-chief of PremierWuzHere.com, as well as a frequent Sherdog.com columnist. Check out his archive here.