Ryota Murata can absolutely wreck the plans for Gennadiy Golovkin to face Canelo Alvarez in September if he can beat him this Saturday night on DAZN at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
Golovkin (42-1-1, 36 KOs) has been heavily criticized for the tunnel vision that he’s shown towards getting the lucrative trilogy fight against Canelo Alvarez.
For the last four years, Golovkin has stopped fighting quality fighters, taking the safe route against lesser opposition in what many boxing fans believe was a move to ensure that he didn’t get beaten.
Fans don’t like the fact that Golovkin has stopped taking risks by facing the best, and instead has focused exclusively on the opposition that wasn’t a threat to beating him. In the last four years, fans wanted to see Golovkin face these fighters: Jermall Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, and David Benavidez.
If GGG had faced any of those guys, there wouldn’t be as much criticism of his focus on getting the trilogy fight with Canelo.
But with the way things have played out, fans think Golovkin is just looking for a cash-out against Canelo, and not interested in continuing to fight the best opposition.
A loss for Golovkin over the last four years would have ruined his chances for a third fight with Canelo. Hence, we’ve seen Golovkin face these fighters: Steve Rolls, Kamil Szeremeta & Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
Golovkin’s choice of Ryota Murata, a guy that has done very little at the professional level, can be viewed as being yet another safe fight for GGG to avoid losing out on the Canelo fight.
Golovkin needs a knockout
“We need a GGG knockout, something dramatic,” said Tony Bellew to the DAZN Boxing Show about Golovkin needing a stoppage of Murata to sell the idea of a third Canelo Alvarez fight in September.
“If he doesn’t knock Murata out, say goodbye to the Canelo trilogy. GGG is now in this for the money. I think he’s looking to cash out. I just believe his reasons for fighting are much different than it was five years ago,” said Bellew.
“I will dance in the street if GGG loses to Murata. I like GGG, I was a GGG fan. I bought into the drama show hype. I think he’s declined as a fighter, and it’s always back to the Canelo thing,” said Carson Merk on the Porter Way Podcast.
Merk is one of many boxing fans that have been disillusioned with Golovkin due to his total focus on getting the trilogy fight with Canelo at the expense of fighting other high-caliber opposition
If Golovkin had been facing other killers in the last four years instead of taking the easy route against easy marks like Rolls, Murata, Derevyanchenko, and Szeremeta, it wouldn’t be such a big deal that his preoccupation with fighting Canelo again.
GGG has been too focused on Canelo
“‘I want to fight Canelo again, Canelo again, Canelo again.’ Now he gets the Canelo fight again, I think it would be poetic justice if he somehow loses to Murata, and Canelo is sitting there, ‘Well, I got to fight Murata.'”
“Look at all the other fights that GGG has had. If GGG was going out and getting all these big fights and was mentioning Canelo, it would still be annoying. That’s your prerogative, but you’re not taking these big fights and it keeps looping back to Canelo. I think it would be funny [if Golovkin loses to Murata].
“I think to beat Golovkin, you have to have some slickness to you, and that’s not a recipe. You’re not going to out-Golovkin,” Merk said about Murata not likely to use his power game to beat a fighter like Golovkin, whose main asset is his strength.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDwqsu0P770
“My official prediction is GGG wins because I don’t think Murata is slick enough. It’s situational. If there was no Canelo factor in all of this, I would still like, ‘Hey, go ahead, GGG. Keep knocking people out,'” said Merk.
“While over the course of time, things diminish and while I felt like some of those things have diminished with GGG, if I see a fantastic GGG against Murata, that would convince me that everything has not diminished and he could very well go out there and put on a great fight against Canelo,” said Shawn Porter.
“The first [Canelo vs. Golovkin] fight was great and the second fight was great. I felt like, me personally, we saw the same thing twice. Some people saw something different, but for me, I saw the same fight twice, and I really don’t want to see a third [Canelo – Golovkin] fight again on top of the fact that I feel that GGG’s skills, power, strength, all of those things, have diminished through the course of time,” said Porter.
“So, if he electrifies against Murata, you’re behind seeing one last big drama show?” said Merk about another Canelo vs. Golovkin clash.
