by David P. Greisman
Sergio Mora thinks highly of Gennady Golovkin, but he also thinks the power-punching 160-pound titleholder has been matched wisely so as to keep his flaws from being exploited.
“I look at Golovkin, I think he’s a monster, obviously. I think he has heavy feet. He has some flaws just like every other fighter. Fighters haven’t been able to capitalize on that, and he’s had the best matchmaking I’ve seen in the last 10 years, aside from [Julio Cesar] Chavez Jr.,” Mora told BoxingScene.com in late October. “But Chavez Jr., everyone was clowning him on his opposition. No one’s clowning Golovkin on his opposition.
“They’re just picking the right fighters. They keep him away from movers. They keep him away from guys that can switch the pace on you and don’t just stand in front of you. Guys that can give you defense, that go to the body, and so on and so forth. They’ve been matching him up really nice, and on top of that, he’s a monster puncher.”
Don’t let that fool you into thinking Mora believes Golovkin isn’t good.
“I’m impressed first. He’s a silver medalist, and as a boxer I know what he can do in the ring. He’s not overrated. Let’s clear that up,” Mora said. “He’s a monster, but he’s been matched perfectly. He’s been matched very, very, very great all the way up, even the fights that he has on HBO, they make it seem like these guys are top, top, top fighters, and then when they get knocked out, it’s like, ‘No match for Golovkin.’ It’s not that it was no match for Golovkin. That was the wrong style match-up.”
What, then, would the right style match-up be? Who should Golovkin have faced instead of those he’s beaten?
“Anyone that doesn’t stand in front of him. Anyone that can bend their waist and move their head. Anyone with some kind of defense,” Mora said. “It takes more than balls. And ‘I’m going to push him back, I’m going to give him everything they can handle.’ Yeah, OK. How? What’s your strategy? How have you proven that before? All these guys can talk the talk but they’ve never walked the walk. So what makes you think you’re going to walk the walk now when you get the chance?
“The guys that I think he should be facing, he’ll face guys from 154 to 168. [Erislandy] Lara was up there. [Demetrius] Andrade I think would give him a hell of a fight. Andrade, he’ll move up in weight. At 160, Danny Jacobs I think would give him a good fight until Danny gets cracked. I’d give him a good fight. You know who else would give him a good fight? Gilberto Ramirez [Sanchez], the sall southpaw Mexican. think he’ll give him a hard time, because he’s a southpaw, tall, he’s smart, good pop. It’s guys that aren’t going to get hit and will give him something different than just standing in front of him and throwing a one-two.”
Mora is scheduled to return on a Dec. 11 card in California. It will be his fourth bout back since a majority decision loss in a rematch with Bryan Vera in 2012. Since then, Mora topped Gregorz Proksa by unanimous decision in June 2013, knocked out Milton Nunez in November 2013 and stopped Samuel Rogers this past May, bringing his record to 26-3-2 with 9 KOs.
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
