BIG DRAMA SHOW
included Madison Square Garden, The Forum in Inglewood and the O2 Arena in London, usually against non-superstar opponents. In selling out the reconfigured Garden, Golovkin joined Cotto and Felix Trinidad as one of the few modern- era fighters to have such clout (and those two had New York’s massive Puerto Rican audience to support them). Close scrutiny of Golovkin’s rivals fails to acknowledge that the primary requirement of a fighter – along with winning fights – is to create a mysterious connection with the customers. The promoters and the networks play a part in the presentation, but if the fighter doesn’t have that certain something, that inexplicable quality that some call the “it” factor, he won’t have a successful career. Golovkin brought to boxing, after all, precisely what was required by fans. The string of knockouts; the boyish humility he showed even as he collected one belt after another; the tactical, no-frills style – he managed to defeat opponents soundly without having to show them up in some way – all combined for a refreshing new fighter, one we didn’t know we needed until we saw him. We didn’t think fighters like Golovkin existed among the childish punks who populate boxing, the cretins who can’t give an interview without calling someone a bitch. The business had become unseemly and remains so, where even the fathers of fighters act like lunatics. Golovkin gave us a nice break from all that. Few fighters can match the career of Ray Robinson. Fewer still can have the cultural impact of Ali or Louis. But in upstate New York this June, on what we hope will be a sunny, mild afternoon, Golovkin will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He will forever be linked with the greats, whether he was great or not. Does he belong? He made an awful lot of title defenses. He sold tickets. He gave boxing a shot in the arm. To not induct him would be stupid.
Miguel Cotto were avoiding him. To refresh your memories, when the WBC mandated Cotto defend his newly won title against Golovkin, Cotto’s team paid an $800,000 step-aside fee for a fight with Canelo. Similarly, when Sturm reigned as the WBA titlist, it was alleged that his camp used a maelstrom of political maneuvers to avoid contact with “GGG.” In that period, Golovkin wasn’t yet a major name – Sturm and Cotto were not going to risk losing to a somewhat unknown fighter. As Golovkin’s camp would later do to Ward, so it was that Sturm and Cotto brushed off Golovkin. They may not have been ducking him, per se, but were simply looking after business. As Cotto said at the time, “I do what is best for me.” And it was probably best not to fight Golovkin, who was a monster in those days. With 350 amateur bouts behind him and a silver medal from the 2004 Summer Olympics, he’d turned professional in 2006. He banged out 23 consecutive wins before making his American debut at a New York casino in 2012. He introduced himself to us by stopping Grzegorz Proksa in five. That’s part of why Golovkin was so likable. Many fighters in his position would’ve stayed in Europe and had a nice career. But he didn’t want to be Sven Ottke or Dariusz Michalczewski, sitting for years on a title for an exclusively European audience. Golovkin knew what he had. He wanted to come to America and be a star. From there, opponents dropped like trees in a lightning storm: Gabriel Rosado, Nobuhiro Ishida, Macklin, Curtis Stevens, Osumanu Adama, Dominic Wade, Geale and the rest. Golovkin was brilliant at a sort of fighting we don’t often see, cutting the ring off, trapping opponents and unloading short, stiff combinations. His punches were heavy, belying his grin and carefree demeanor. Opponents either fell, or quit on their stools, or sagged against the ropes as the referee saved them from more abuse. “Mexican style,” Golovkin would say, winking at
on Deontay Wilder. The best fighter at the time was probably Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, but flyweights don’t drive the business. By 2016, after the Pacquiao-Mayweather bore, PPV sales were plummeting. The first Ward- Sergey Kovalev bout, a fight fan’s fight, drew a disappointing 165,000 buys. The rematch flopped even harder. The fight game seemed tired and, aside from Canelo, void of bankable young stars. But working steadily in the background, with a choirboy’s smile and a deadly left hand, was Golovkin. When boxing felt a bit stagnant, he was a beacon. For a time, Golovkin was one of the most feared men in the sport. There used to be talk that such titleholders as Felix Sturm, Peter Quillin and
lying. Besides, there was a potential showdown brewing with Canelo Alvarez, which became one of the defining bouts of a generation and made more than $23 million in ticket sales. At the time, the first Golovkin-Canelo bout was the third-highest live gate in Nevada boxing history and, with 1.3 million buys, was also among the top 20 best- selling boxing PPV events. To assume a bout with Ward would’ve had a similar impact is delusional. Regarding the Hall of Fame, Golovkin may have been elected for the simplest of reasons: He delighted us. He fought during a period when the big names in the field had gone stale. We sat through Floyd Mayweather’s tutorials on defense and, even if we appreciated them, we yearned for more excitement. The fighters who had dominated in the 2000s were either retired or aging out. Most of the future names hadn’t yet emerged. Tyson Fury had stepped away, and the jury was undecided
The unbeaten Kamil Szeremeta was chewed up in seven.
the HBO cameras. “Big drama show.” He was a charmer. We were intrigued. Golovkin’s critics point out that he failed to beat Canelo, conveniently forgetting that most people thought he won their first bout, which was recorded as a split draw. CompuBox stats had Golovkin outpunching Alvarez in 10 of the 12 rounds. Split draw? It was one of the most unjust verdicts of the century, compounded by Canelo’s failed PED test at the start of his camp for the rematch. Their second bout was a majority decision for Alvarez, but again, many thought Golovkin had done enough to win. So, unofficially, Golovkin could’ve been 2-0 against Alvarez. By the time of their third bout in 2022, Golovkin was 40 and the shine had worn off. Canelo beat him. Golovkin retired. The big drama show had come to an end. We might look at the first two Golovkin-Canelo fights as cases of “be careful what you wish for.” The Golovkin camp had aimed for a Canelo fight knowing it was the biggest thing that could happen for their fighter. Unfortunately, the scoring of the first two fights, where Golovkin fought well, slanted toward Canelo, the game’s breadwinner. A fighter from Kazakhstan making his Las Vegas debut would
Golovkin was extremely unlucky to not get a win over Canelo.
never get the benefit of the doubt in close rounds against Alvarez, a Las Vegas phenomenon with an enormous Mexican fan base. It’s not slanderous to say judges gifted a fighter a few rounds based on his being the A-side. It’s happened before. It will happen again. It happened to Golovkin. Abel Sanchez, Golovkin’s trainer and probably his biggest fan, put the Alvarez bouts in perspective for Fight Hub TV in 2024. “The fact that they went 36 rounds,” Sanchez said, “the two best fighters in the world – and Canelo was at the top of his game – for them to go 36 rounds like that and be so competitive, with only three or four rounds difference [in scoring], that’s pretty good. That’s pretty damned good.” The criticism of Golovkin’s resume is, in a way, justified; no one ever said he was knocking out a murderers’ row of contenders, coming from behind to score dramatic, last-minute knockouts. Regardless, he was a top ticket-seller, consistently packing venues that
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