Is light-heavyweight ruler Andre Ward currently deserving of being right at the top of the mythical pound-for-pound rankings? More than likely he is, considering his recent stoppage win over Sergey Kovalev, his overall dominance, at two weights, and his perfect unbeaten record.
But, will things change after September 16? If either Gennady Golovkin or Canelo Alvarez scores an emphatic victory in their huge, Fight of The Year, middleweight title showdown, will he see himself vaulted up to the number-one spot? Would the winner of this fight get enough votes to remove Ward from the top of the charts?
Promoter Oscar De La Hoya may be guilty of being a little bit biased, for obvious reasons, yet The Golden Boy said during the press tour to further promote the massive fight many see as a genuine 50-50 match-up that he feels the winner will indeed be “the best fighter on the planet.”
“This is the best fight that can be made in the world today,” De La Hoya said in New York. “And I strongly believe that the winner will be the best fighter on the planet. Absolutely.”
De La Hoya may well be proven right; even if superb fighters such as Ward, Vasyl Lomachenko, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Terence Crawford and maybe a few others will strongly disagree. But if either middleweight puts on a dominant show, say winning by a KO, with the expected millions watching around the world, then yes, many people will very likely point to either GGG or Canelo as the sport’s absolute best.
But who will win? Opinions seem to change from day to day. On the one hand, Golovkin is arguably fading at age 35 and has slowed down enough for Canelo, at age 26, to be able to defeat him in a battle of attrition. Yet on the other hand, fans argue how GGG is the naturally bigger man, he is ready to win his defining fight and that we will see the best of him in September.
Fans can’t wait; neither can the two fighters. Neither can De La Hoya.
