Certified knockout artist and current WBA (Super), IBO, IBF and interim WBC middleweight titleholder Gennady “GGG” Golovkin has his eyes set on big fights in 2016; and he could clearly use them considering that his pay-per-view numbers for his October fight against David Lemieux didn’t exactly set the world on fire.
That shouldn’t be a problem, right? Well, for Golovkin, finding an opponent for his April fight date is turning out to be quite the task.
Initially, a unification bout against undefeated Billy Joe Saunders -- he recently defeated Andy Lee for the WBO title -- seemed like a formality. That was until Saunders ended up scoffing at the offer, which has kept that fight from seeing the light of day. Where does that leave Golovkin? Unfortunately, he does not have a lot of options.
“GGG” has to defend his IBF title against a mandatory challenger or risk being stripped of the title. For some fighters, being stripped is no big deal, but because Golovkin is on a mission to unify the titles, he’s going to have to appease each sanctioning body until he does so. What that means is he’s going to have to face one of the IBF’s top-ranked fighters. With Saunders no longer in the running, it was assumed that Tureano Johnson would get the call. However, an injury has shelved Johnson, meaning he won’t be ready for an April date. That leaves the next fighter for you to feast your eyes on: Dominic Wade.
Who? Exactly.
It’s not like Johnson or Saunders are big names, but at least they had some legitimacy with hardcore fight fans. Wade, on the other hand, has nothing. He’s 18-0 with 12 KOs but not even close to Golovkin’s league. He’ll be yet another lamb being led to the slaughter, as “GGG” arbitrarily cleans out the middleweight division while waiting for a big fight that will help push his name further into popular culture.
This sucks, honestly. It’s not Golovkin’s fault that nobody wants to fight him; and let’s shelve the Andre Ward conversation for another day, considering that Ward is now a full-fledged light heavyweight. Wade will do it, but who really cares?
For the record, Wade’s last outing was a hotly contested split decision victory over the 41-year-old Sam Soliman in June. Do you know how many times “GGG” has seen a split decision in one of his fights? That’s right, never. Twenty-one consecutive knockouts are the remedy for ever needing judges to score your fights.
It’s evident that boxing would benefit from a matchmaker who oversees the entire sport and forces fights between the top guys. Say what you want about Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White, but he’s not in the business of giving his sport’s fans a bunch of crap fights. You won’t see Conor McGregor take on some unranked lightweight when he debuts in the weight class. Jon Jones’ return bout will not be against Gian Villante. Holly Holm is getting a break in her first title defense and will be fighting Miesha Tate. MMA just doesn’t do things like that. However, boxing does, and that will remain the sport’s problem until further notice.
As exciting as Golovkin is, there shouldn’t be anything less than the top fighters lining up to face him; and if the fans want an Andre Ward fight at middleweight, they should get it. “Canelo” Alvarez won a middleweight title, and he should defend it at the middleweight limit. No questions asked. If you aren’t going to defend the title at the weight limit, why do you have it in the first place? This is all ridiculous, honestly. All this primping and posturing doesn’t help anyone. The fans feel ignored, the fighters struggle for relevance and the entire sport suffers.
Boxing is known to give its fans a bunch of fights they don’t want to see, so when they finally do get one like Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao, they salivate. It shouldn’t be that way. Mayweather and Pacquiao should have fought long ago. Maybe it hurts the bottom line by having top fighters face each other “too soon,” but champions should defend their titles against the top fighters. No excuses.
Alas, this will be yet another instance where boxing doesn’t do itself any favors. For his part, Golovkin wants to beat up on the big names. Maybe one day he’ll get them, or maybe he’ll have to go to the UFC.
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.