Golovkin – A matter of time?

By Robert Jackson - 07/01/2013 - Comments

Watching Gennady Golovkin fight is just like seeing any of the up-and-coming KO artists of boxing as they worked their way up the boxing ladder to the top – Tyson, Hearns, Foreman. But if history has it right ‘it’s just a matter of time’ before Golovkin meets his match and another fighter with or without his pedigree or resume takes the 0 off of his record.

I’m not on the bandwagon like most fight fans who wear blinders when it comes to knock outs, and coronate the KO artist…king. Golovkin a decorated Olympics Silver medalist is reported to have close to 350 amateur fights with only 5 losses, winning 98.6% of his amateur bouts – a phenomenal feat. As a pro his amateur pedigree has translated into a 100% winning effort with close to a 90% KO ratio.

There’s no doubt GGG as he’s called has a solid amateur boxing background but…he’s still developing as a professional fighter. Like most up-and-comers GGG is facing the ‘usual suspects’, brought along slowly against guys that have little chance of beating him so they can build him up. Like most prospects GGG has fought named but past their prime guys like Kassim Ouma, and prime but limited fighters like Gabriel Rosado and Matthew Macklin, and others who no one has ever heard of. But the KO’s keep coming and boxing fans buy into the hype.

Most if not all prospects and fringe contenders are very active and achieve most of their KO’s early in their careers as they tend to fight often against unranked fighters, beginners like themselves and finally named journeymen on the downside of their careers. This is the case in Golovkin’s career as well. While other fighters in his position like Adrien Broner are being asked by fans to ‘step up’ Golovkin is still being matched against the underachievers of his weight class. Guillermo Rigondeaux in his 12th fight recently stepped up to fight the #4 P4P fighter on the planet – Nonito Donaire, putting on a dominant display of boxing skill taking Donaire’s 122lb title. Rigondeaux showed Donaire how it’s done! The reason I bring up Rigondeaux is because his boxing pedigree is equal to that of Golovkin, with the Cuban having 350+ amateur fights with only a handful of losses.

A year or so I go I was making this same argument against Peter Quillan and I still am – he hasn’t fought anybody, except an over the hill Winky Wright and an overhyped Fernando Guerrero. And because of these wins Quillan like Golovkin is rated near the top of the 160lb division. Maybe a bout between the 2 men is in order, with the outcome determining which of the 2 is the REAL DEAL. In any case it’s my opinion that ‘it’s just a matter of time’ before someone steps to Golovkin (and Quillan) and shows him how it’s done!

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