By Lyle Fitzsimmons
Fighter A has two middleweight belts and a following. Fighter B has a super middleweight belt and a reputation. Given those realities, it seems simple that adding Fighter A to Fighter B would yield Fight C.
But this, friends, is boxing. The sport that logic has long forgot.
And when it comes to the commodity known as “Triple-G,” nothing comes easy.
Within moments of the referee wave-off that ended Gennady Golovkin’s sixth-round erasure of an outgunned Willie Monroe Jr. on Saturday night in suburban Los Angeles, the familiar refrain from fans and a smitten HBO broadcast crew called for more of the same, but with bigger names.
Among the potential quarry suggested by in-ring interview master Max Kellerman were the sensible (fellow middleweight belt-holder Miguel Cotto), the scintillating (fellow HBO fan favorite Canelo Alvarez) and the sidelined (long-reigning, but long-inactive, 168-pound champ Andre Ward).
Cotto has weighed heavy on the minds of Team Golovkin since he swiped his WBC title from Sergio Martinez last June in midtown Manhattan, and Alvarez again became the apple of premium cable’s eye following a violent three-round blow-up of James Kirkland that’s an early shoo-in for KO of the Year.
It’s Ward – an unbeaten champion since 2009 – who’s been a forgotten man, so when his name came up as part of Kellerman’s post-Monroe post-mortem, it was instantly worth an ear perk.
The “Son of God” is set to fight for the first time in 19 months on June 20 in Oakland, but just because he’s back on the radar doesn’t mean a Golovkin-Ward matchup is anywhere closer to a sure thing.
In fact, though suggestions have been made that his man ought to be willing to go the Manny Pacquiao route and sacrifice A-side status to secure a career-definer, Tom Loeffler – managing director of K2 Promotions – insists that the payoff for a Ward match wouldn’t be prolific enough to begin the chatter.
“Manny might have taken a smaller split, but the fight generated much more than they had expected five years ago,” he said. “If a fight with Andre Ward generated $100 million for Triple-G, there would be no discussion and we can make that fight next. The problem is it won't.”
In the meantime, Loeffler said Golovkin’s immediate aim is to unify the middleweight division.
Golovkin has the IBO and WBA titles, the IBF crown is vacant and the WBO belt is held by Andy Lee.
Cotto is set to face Daniel Geale – whom Golovkin KO’d 10 months ago – on June 6 in Brooklyn.
If Cotto wins, Golovkin would become the mandatory WBC challenger, thanks to his ascension to that sanctioning body’s “interim” championship status after last October’s KO of Marco Antonio Rubio.
He is ranked No. 7 on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list, where Cotto is unranked; and is the magazine’s top challenger to Cotto, whom it recognizes as middleweight king. The U.K.-based Independent World Boxing Rankings – which slot all fighters regardless of belts – have Cotto first and Golovkin second.
“Triple-G said he would fight anyone from 154 to 168 about two years ago,” Loeffler said.
“He would go up or down if there is a lucrative fight. He said he would go down to 154 to fight Floyd. He said he would go to 168 to fight Chavez, because it would have been pay-per-view last year before he lost to Fonfara; and also to fight Froch, because he sold 80,000 seats in a soccer stadium.
“Those are two completely different scenarios than fighting Ward, where he would make less than he just made to fight Monroe in front of 12,000 people. He has become the highest ticket-selling fighter in Andre’s home state. What am I missing of how this fight can get made?”
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This week’s title-fight schedule:
FRIDAY
Vacant IBO cruiserweight title – Moscow, Russia
Rakhim Chakhkiev (No. 3 IBO/No. 7 IWBR) vs. Junior Anthony Wright (No. 32 IBO/No. 87 IWBR)
Chakhkiev (22-1, 17 KO): Second title fight (0-1); Unbeaten since 2013 (6-0, 5 KO)
Wright (13-0-1, 11 KO): First title fight; Fourth fight against foe coming off a win (2-0-1, 1 KO)
Fitzbitz says: Chakhkiev may not be the second of Dwight Qawi coming at 200 pounds, but matched with a guy who’s never won a 10-round fight, he suddenly looks a whole lot better. Chakhkiev in 4
WBC cruiserweight title – Moscow, Russia
Grigory Drozd (champion/No. 3 IWBR) vs. Lukasz Janik (No. 19 WBC/No. 40 IWBR)
Drozd (39-1, 27 KO): First title defense; Unbeaten since 2006 (14-0, 8 KO)
Janik (28-2, 15 KO): Second title fight (0-1); Second fight in Russia (1-0, 1 KO)
Fitzbitz says: The champion became a surprising incumbent just a month before turning 35, but it shouldn’t be such a surprise if he holds onto his belt here on home turf. Drozd by decision
SATURDAY
Vacant IBF super middleweight title – Boston, Mass.
James DeGale (No. 1 IBF/No. 5 IWBR) vs. Andre Dirrell (No. 2 IBF/No. 14 IWBR)
DeGale (20-1, 14 KO): First title fight; Third fight outside the United Kingdom (2-0, 2 KO)
Dirrell (24-1, 16 KO): Second title fight (0-1); Unbeaten since 2009 (6-0, 3 KO)
Fitzbitz says: DeGale and Dirrell are evenly matched and at similar stages of their careers, so there’s not much to separate them. But the guess here is that DeGale is a bit closer to the top. DeGale by decision
Last week's picks: 2-0 (WIN: Golovkin, Gonzalez)
2015 picks record: 30-7 (81.0 percent)
Overall picks record: 669-230 (74.4 percent)
NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.
Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.