by David P. Greisman

There comes a point at which a boxer should not be held responsible for circumstances beyond his control.

There comes a time, though, when we as boxing fans expect a better product and don’t accept excuses, however valid, for why we are not getting it.

This is the situation that Gennady Golovkin and his team may someday confront.

Golovkin, a middleweight titleholder seen as being perhaps the best in his division, has not yet gotten the opportunity to prove himself so and may not get that opportunity for quite some time.

The lineal champion at 160 — the man who beat the man who beat the man, and so on — is Miguel Cotto, who dethroned Sergio Martinez in June. Perhaps had Martinez been triumphant, he would’ve gone on to defend against Golovkin.

But with Cotto the winner, there was never a chance of him sharing a ring with “GGG.” He’s more likely to take the largest available paydays, and at present that means a potential pay-per-view against Mexican superstar and former junior-middleweight titleholder Canelo Alvarez. Cotto may take a stay-busy fight in the upcoming months before meeting Alvarez in May 2015, coinciding with Cinco de Mayo weekend.

A handful of other middleweights fight on Showtime, while Golovkin has a contract with HBO. Peter Quillin dropped his world title rather than earn a career-high payday to face Matt Korobov, presumably because the bout was not going to air on Showtime, nor was it going to be on a card affiliated with Golden Boy Promotions (with whom he works) or adviser Al Haymon (with whom he is signed).

Quillin could end up facing Daniel Jacobs, who’s also with Haymon. Former champion Jermain Taylor, another Haymon middleweight, is long past his prime but recently picked up a belt with a win over Sam Soliman. He’s not about to be fed to Golovkin either. Farther down the rankings are a couple more Haymon guys at 160: Sergio Mora and prospect Caleb Truax. Haymon and HBO no longer have a working relationship, and Haymon’s plans likely don’t include putting his boxers in with Golovkin. Meanwhile, David Lemieux is with Quebec-based promoter Yvon Michel and most recently appeared on Showtime.

That doesn’t leave too much for Golovkin within his division.

Since debuting on HBO about two years ago, he’s fought on the network six times, scoring technical knockouts over Gregorz Proksa in September 2012 and Gabriel Rosado in January 2013, putting Matthew Macklin down for the count on a body shot, winning by technical knockout against Curtis Stevens in November 2013 and Daniel Geale in June, and needing less than five minutes to top Marco Antonio Rubio this past Saturday. He’s also had a pair of bouts in-between that weren’t featured on the premium cable outlet: a one-punch knockout of Nobuhiro Ishida in March 2013 and a seventh-round win over Osumanu Adama in February 2014.

It’s not the greatest slate. Geale was considered a major step-up, a former titleholder who had just lost his belt in a close, competitive fight with Darren Barker a year before.

These days, Martinez is coming off a one-sided loss and is deciding whether to continue fighting. Korobov will face Andy Lee for Quillin’s vacated title in December. Neither Korobov nor Lee is considered a top middleweight. Felix Sturm lost to Soliman, who lost to Taylor, and is now going to face former 168-pound titleholder Robert Stieglitz. Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam lost to Quillin back in 2012 but recently outpointed Curtis Stevens for the right to be mandatory challenger to Taylor’s title.

Perhaps the best available foe, then, is Martin Murray, a 32-year-old from the United Kingdom who has had two title shots before, drawing with Sturm back in 2011 and losing a close decision to Martinez in April 2013. He’s won three in a row since then and works with a promoter that has been staging shows in Monte Carlo in the European principality of Monaco. That’s where Golovkin fought Ishida and Adama, and it’s where Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, says “GGG” will be returning this coming February.

Murray is scheduled to face Domenico Spada this Saturday. If he wins, he’s “a natural” to face Golovkin in February, Loeffler told BoxingScene.com’s Mike Coppinger after Golovkin-Rubio.

But then what?

Loeffler said the aim is for Golovkin to fight four times in 2015, which is the number of bouts he had in 2013 and the number he probably would’ve had in 2014 if the unexpected death of his father hadn’t led to the understandable cancelation of one of his fights.

So much can change so quickly in this sport, but the circumstances at middleweight might not be too different by the midway point of 2015.

One benefit of Golovkin facing Rubio this past Saturday was that Rubio held the trinket called the World Boxing Council’s “interim” title at middleweight, a bauble that would otherwise be meaningless if not for the fact that its owner can attempt to leverage the belt for a shot at the WBC’s actual titleholder. In this case, that is Cotto. Yet Cotto may still have other options available should he defeat Alvarez, even as Golovkin’s star power continues to grow. It’s easy to envision rematches for Cotto with Alvarez or even Floyd Mayweather.

There comes a point at which a boxer should not be held responsible for circumstances beyond his control. There comes a time, though, when we as boxing fans expect a better product and don’t accept excuses, however valid, for why we are not getting it.

Because Golovkin is seen as one of the top middleweights and an emerging star in the sport, there are those who will expect more than wins over whoever happens to be available.

It’s not fair, but it’s the truth. That — and the fact that Golovkin’s trainer has said he’s willing to have his fighter drop down or go up in weight, if need be — is why there has been talk about Golovkin stepping in against super middleweights.

A bout against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. had been on the agenda for this past summer, only to fall apart due to Chavez saying he didn’t like the terms offered to him by his promoter. Even though both fighters remain amenable to such a clash, Chavez and Top Rank would first need to reach an agreement.

Carl Froch says his career is winding down. His mandatory challenger is British contender James DeGale, but Froch has said he’d rather go to Las Vegas and take on Chavez Jr. or another significant name, or else he may retire. It remains to be seen whether Golovkin would be an opponent he’d consider and if the boxers’ respective promoters would also sign on.

Andre Ward also has said he would be willing to face Golovkin. He, too, has been left inactive by ongoing litigation against his promoter, the recently deceased Dan Goossen.

Such are the circumstances for Golovkin, who must either play the waiting game or the weight game. As he can’t get the best at 160, he’s expected to be willing to jump in potentially with Ward, the top 168-pounder and one of the best boxers in the entire sport.

He also has the responsibility of building a fan base. That, combined with confidence in his skills and power, is probably why Golovkin still fought Rubio this past Saturday despite Rubio coming in nearly two pounds overweight and then rehydrating by a massive 20 pounds by fight night.

Nevertheless, Golovkin also has the comfort of his deal with HBO. And there’s also the knowledge that while some of us boxing fans want nothing more than for the best to fight the best all the time, the truth is that we often will watch no matter what — and that the more casual fans don’t care anywhere near as much. You need look no farther than the Aug. 9 broadcast on Showtime, which had a main event mismatch between junior-welterweight champion Danny Garcia and Rod Salka yet drew more than 800,000 viewers, an audience larger than the competitive fights that aired on the network one week later.

It would just be a shame if Golovkin needs to continue to go that route, as we want to see how he stands up against others — and if others can stand up to him.

Otherwise, he’ll be the one taking chances at 168, all because too few are willing to do so at 160.

The 10 Count

1.  At first glance while watching Gennady Golovkin’s win over Marco Antonio Rubio, I thought that the count from referee Jack Reiss might’ve been too quick, particularly at the end when Reiss rolled very quickly from “nueve” (9) into “diez” (10).

I’ve rewatched the moment several times since, and though the camera angle is a tough one, Reiss’ count and his ruling that Rubio failed to beat it appear to be largely legit. The count lasted 10 seconds from the time Rubio hit the canvas and ticked along at a mostly steady rate from when Reiss returned from guiding Golovkin to a neutral corner. Rubio wasn’t up at nine and didn’t appear to be up as Reiss hit 10.

Reiss was a little quick from 9 to 10. About three quarters of a second passed from when he started with “nueve” and when he began to say “diez,” which means he was about a quarter of a second fast. (Thanks to Twitter user @JungRojo for putting together a timeline visualization of the audio.)

It was close, but it was more legit than, say, Malik Scott getting counted against Dereck Chisora last year or Roberto Ortiz being counted out against Lucas Matthysse this past September. In both of those cases, Scott and Ortiz appeared to be rising immediately as the ref hit nine, whereas Rubio was a little bit behind and was still getting up from the mat.

2.  Golovkin’s previous win also ended in a bit of a gray area. Here’s what I wrote about the knockdown Daniel Geale suffered and the subsequent referee stoppage last July:

“Geale got back up before the referee’s count reached four, walked backward to the ropes, then walked forward again toward another corner. The referee’s count reached eight. He instructed Geale to come to him. Geale shook his head, and the referee waved the fight off. Geale didn’t protest. In the post-fight press conference, however, he said he could’ve gone on, that the head shake was one of emotion, not of surrender.

“ ‘I guess in that moment I was just completely disappointed in myself and I wasn’t thinking,’ Geale said. ‘I got up, and the next minute I looked around and the referee waved it off. I didn’t really have much time to work out what was going on at that stage. He definitely caught me, I know that. Whether I could’ve gone on or not, that’s hard to say. I would’ve liked to have, but I probably made the wrong decision being so pissed off at myself about getting caught, that I looked like I wasn’t right. … I felt I could’ve went on and finished the rest of the round. I sort of thought the referee was going to speak to me and ask me, but the next thing I knew the fight was finished. It happens very quickly.’ ”

3.  Good for HBO’s Max Kellerman for asking trainer Robert Garcia about Marco Antonio Rubio not only failing to make weight against Gennady Golovkin, but not trying to drop the 1.75 pounds.

“They see the two pounds but don’t see the 15 that he lost two days ago,” Garcia said. “His body had already shut down and he couldn’t lose any more, so why even try?”

Kellerman missed an opportunity to ask about why Rubio was 15 pounds overweight two days before then — and by the way, a mandatory World Boxing Council check-in had Rubio at 167.5 pounds with seven days to go before the bout.

He did follow up well with another question, noting that multiple fighters who work with Garcia have failed to make weight, including Brandon Rios and Mikey Garcia.

“It’s just part of the sport. It happens,” Garcia responded. “It’s not like my fighters are the only ones that come in overweight. It happens all the time. It’s just part of boxing. Sometimes you grow out of it [a weight class], sometimes you just don’t take care of your body and blow up too heavy. Those are the cases with a couple of my fighters. There’s nothing I can do. I can’t babysit them 24/7.”

But if a boxer isn’t showing the discipline to stay on weight while preparing for a fight or to stay in shape while out of the gym, then it’s up to the trainer to bring him in line. The trainer should also strive to keep his boxers from taking a fight at a weight they can’t make or shouldn’t try to make.

Making weight isn’t easy, particularly as competitors in amateur wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts are always looking to drop down as low as possible in hopes of rehydrating and getting a size advantage. But if a fighter misses weight, he needs to be held accountable, and so do the people who work with him.

4.  I don’t know that Nonito Donaire’s stoppage loss to Nicholas Walters means the end of Donaire so much as it marks the arrival of Walters.

Donaire had a few good moments, but perhaps he got overconfident against an opponent who is clearly very good, has impressive size and power for a featherweight, and knows how to use his skills. Walters scored a knockdown in the third round and then finished things off with a right hand above the ear as the sixth round was coming to a close.

Granted, Donaire at 126 is now at a weight where his power is still good but isn’t as fight-changing as it was when he was competing in lighter divisions. That, and the power and size of his opponents, is something he’d need to adjust to in order to still be successful at a high level.

I don’t want to count Donaire out just yet.

I do want to see much more of Walters from here.

I’m hoping Bob Arum of Top Rank sticks to his idea of putting his featherweights in against each other. I’d love to see Walters against Vasyl Lomachenko or Evgeny Gradovich. I’d even be in favor of Donaire facing Lomachenko or Gradovich.

And though he’s not with Top Rank, there’s still titleholder Jhonny Gonzalez, who could make for fun fights with any of the above…

5.  Months ago, I interviewed boxing manager Egis Klimas, who has both Lomachenko and Gradovich, about the idea of a de facto featherweight tournament between Top Rank fighters, including the possibility that none of his guys could have a title belt left. Or, if he was fortunate, he’d have one fighter with a world title instead of two fighters with two belts.

I loved his answer:

“Well if he’s not deserving, then he’s not deserving,” Klimas responded.

That would potentially mean less money for him as a manager, I noted.

“It’s not all about the money. It’s a sport,” he said. “You can’t convert sport into the money all the time.”

6.  Some incredibly sad news came out of Louisiana last week regarding Emanuel Augustus, the beloved journeyman boxer who last had fought in January 2011. He was shot in the head in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was on life support. A suspect has been arrested, and it appears as if the alleged shooter had not actually targeted Augustus.

Christopher Stills, 21, is facing “charges of attempted second-degree murder, felon in possession of a handgun and illegal use of a weapon,” according to The Times-Picayune.
 
A police spokesman, paraphrased in the article, alleged “that Stills got into an argument with his cousin while riding in a car. Stills then got out of the car and fired several gunshots over the car out of anger. [The spokesman] said Stills did not know Augustus and the incident was not a robbery, as nothing was taken from the boxer.”

The shooting occurred just blocks from the gym where Augustus sparred. The 39-year-old was 38-34-6 in a career where that record was not at all indicative of the talent he had.

7.  Boxers Behaving Badly: Junior welterweight Mike Alvarado was taken into police custody in Las Vegas and held on a pair of open warrants issued by two police departments in the state of Colorado. That was in late September. As of Oct. 17, he was in the process of being transported back to Colorado to face charges, according to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office Warrants Section.

Police in Las Vegas responded on Sept. 30 to a disturbance call, according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department spokesman. It was during that call that officers learned of the warrants in Colorado and took Alvarado into custody.
 
Alvarado, 34, had a traffic warrant issued on May 27 by the Northglenn Police Department for failure to appear in court for a charge of “driving under restraint,” according to online records. He then had a felony warrant issued on June 3 by the Thornton Police Department for a charge of “possession of weapons by previous offenders.”
 
Alvarado has a lengthy criminal record and spent some time behind bars a handful of years ago for violating probation “involving traffic- and driving-oriented offenses and an earlier domestic violence charge,” The Denver Post wrote in 2010 as the boxer was preparing to come back to the ring.
 
He is coming off a pair of losses — one to Ruslan Provodnikov via stoppage in October 2013, another via decision against Juan Manuel Marquez in May. That brought his record to 34-3 with 23 KOs. A third fight between Alvarado and Brandon Rios had been mentioned as a possibility for the coming months. It is unclear if and how this news will affect those plans. Rios won their first bout by technical knockout in 2012 and then Alvarado won a unanimous decision in the March 2013 rematch.

8.  Boxers Behaving Badly update: It’s been nearly five years since former 130-pound titleholder Jorge Barrios killed a pregnant woman and her unborn child during a hit-and-run crash in Argentina. Now it looks as if he’ll finally be going to prison.

Univision reports that Barrios has received a reduced sentence of three years and seven months. Way back in April 2012, Barrios paid $200,000 to secure his release from prison after just 22 days there. There were restrictions placed on him for how long he could be outside of his home. He also needed court permission to leave the country, and he was allowed to drive, the Buenos Aires Herald reported at the time. This updated sentence calls for the prison time and for Barrios not to be allowed to drive for seven years.

The case stemmed from a January 2010 incident in which Barrios struck one car, then ran over a group of pedestrians, then hit another car. Barrios, 38, last fought in October 2010, a win that brought his record to 50-4-1 with 35 knockouts and 1 no contest.

9.  Boxing as a niche sport in America, a study of two fights in two countries:

- Oct. 4, 2014: Jhonny Gonzalez defends his featherweight belt with an 11th-round stoppage of highly faded future Hall of Fame inductee Jorge Arce. In Mexico, where the population is about 120 million, the fight pulls in an audience of 28 million viewers.

- Oct. 8, 2014: Jermain Taylor captures a middleweight title from Sam Soliman on an ESPN2 broadcast. In the United States, where the population is about 319 million, the fight pulls in an average audience of 603,000.

Mind you, even the most hardcore of boxing fans weren’t overly excited about Taylor-Soliman, whereas Arce has been among the more popular fighters in Mexico.

10.  By the way, the top-rated broadcast in the U.S. for the week ending Oct. 12 was NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” on Oct. 12 which pulled in an average of about 18.1 million viewers, or about 5.7 percent of the total population.

Gonzalez-Arce was seen by about 23.3 percent of Mexico, or about one of every four people.

Maybe it’s time for me to run my book through Google Translate…

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com