In an interview with FightHype, trainer Freddie Roach had a brief discussion regarding a potential matchup between middleweight champions Miguel Cotto and Gennady Golovkin. Roach immediately stated that to this point Golovkin has not fought the best fighters in the division. When discussing Golovkins past victims he said ‘they’re not that good, lets face it.’
I do not know how true this is as Golovkin has been beating top ten middleweights for a good amount of time now and making them look amateurish. This is a similar illusion created when Mayweather fights, many people think Mayweather doesn’t take the toughest choice of opponents because he beats them with such ease. What people don’t realise is that these are not easy fights, guys like Mayweather and Golovkin just make them look easy. Name another middleweight who could stop both Marco Antonio Rubio and Daniel Geale in less than 5 rounds combined?
Regardless, you cannot compare the competition levels between Cotto and Golovkin as Miguel has fought the best fighters on the planet including Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, Sergio Martinez, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosely and Zab Judah. Cotto has that going for him at least. Cotto certainly has a disadvantage in size but Freddie said that ‘size doesn’t really mean much in boxing.’ He mentioned that Cotto was far smaller than Martinez but he beat him regardless. Again I can’t say this is a good comparison as Martinez and Golovkin are far different fighters and are in completely different stages of their respective careers.
Freddie Roach did say that it would be an good match up, but said that if he is given three names to choose from as Cottos next opponent, he did not know where Gennady would place in that top three. He also said that he wasn’t sure where someone like Timothy Bradley would place either. Both would certainly be great fights, but the Gennady one is the fight that fans are clamouring to see. All Gennady Golovkin needs at this point in his career is a marquee name to beat to launch his profile to superstardom. Cotto could well be that name.
