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So you're saying he should have slaughtered a welterweight instead because that's what happened. Let's not forget the 800k in step aside money he took.
GGG was already the mandatory challenger to Cotto's WBC title. The Cotto / Canelo fight was approved by Suliaman on the proviso that the winner was to fight Golovkin next: Was Golovkin dumb for assuming that meant the fight was a lock? You seriously telling me in those circumstances he should have turned his back on that and gone up to fight Ward?
https://www.************.com/2015/05...inst-golovkin/
Golovkins PPV with Lemieux was already arranged when Ward called him out with an offer they have one interim fight apiece in between - which in GGGs case would have meant he would have been agreeing to fight Ward next after fighting Lemieux... right in the timeframe he would have been hoping to fight the Cotto vs Canelo winner per the agreement with the WBC. I ask again, if you were guiding a fighter - any fighter, no matter how bold - what would you have done in the circumstances? Int shouldn't even need to be a question.
Obviously the rest is history, Ward was under pressure himself to make a fight which would satisfy HBO's conditions so he couldn't hang around waiting for Golovkin to see what materialised and obviously he quickly moved on to negotiating with Kovalev (of course Golovkin receives criticism for attempting to face the smaller more lucrative fighter in Cotto / Canelo but rarely is it mentioned that Ward also attempted to face the smaller, more lucrative Golovkin before he went after Kovalev)Comment
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Huh? What? No. I always said the Brook fight was nonsense, but equally that wasn't the fight he was attempting to make and in any case only happened because Canelo reneged on his agreement to fight Golovkin. I'm saying given the circumstances as they were at the time Golovkin made the only sensible, rational choice... the same choice any other fighter would have taken believing they were on the cusp of a PPV with one of the sport's superstars. The fact that events didn't play out as they hoped doesn't somehow invalidate the fact that their decision was completely rational based on the information they had at the time.
Folk are trying to rewrite history to fit in with a narrative like folk usually do - that this fighter or that was a coward or a ducker or whatever, when in reality it generally boils down to the same basic risk / reward calculations regardless of which fighter it is. End of the day all these guys - give or take - are professional athletes and professional fighters. They'll fight whoever's put in front of 'em, but unless they got no choice they ain't gonna deliberately fight a bigger, better fighter for less money.
The step aside I can't say... from a PR point of view it doesn't play well and might have been unwise, but Suliaman by his own admission had been trying to arrange the MW matchups between Cotto / Maravilla and Canelo ever since Maravilla saw off the challenge of the WBCs previous superstar in grooming, JCC Jr. The eventual aim, of course, given their relative ages and sizes was to see Canelo crowned as a MW Champion... now given the money involved and the three years planning, do you think Golovkin would have been allowed to derail that fight? Cotto would just have dropped the belt or more likely the WBC given special dispensation and the Cotto vs Canelo fight would have gone ahead anyway. Hell. In the event Cotto didn't even pay his sanctioning fees and so technically dropped the belt anyway. You think he woulda thought twice about dropping it cos of Golovkin when he had the Canelo payday coming?
Can't even blame anyone - Maravilla was justified in overlooking GGG for superstar Cotto (a smaller guy worth more money) and Cotto can't be faulted for fighting Canelo (a smaller guy for more money) over GGG . It just is what it is.
My guess? Golovkin and Loeffler were taken aside and it was explained to them that the Cotto - Canelo fight was going ahead with or without his consent, but if he was a good boy and played ball he'd get a shot next. That sound kinda plausible to you? Speculation I know but I got a pretty strong hunch that's how these things work..Comment
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I have no idea whether they did or didn't. Nor do you unless you were actually privvy to the team discussions or live between Golovkin's ears. I suspect had the opportunity come up when there was no other big fights on the horizon they probably would have done, but at the end of the day neither of us have anything other than speculation (and Golovkin's claim that he said 'yes' back in 2013 or whatever).
You can't prove it, I can't prove it so I guess we just gotta agree to differ. I honestly think Ward would have won so I wouldn't even fault GGG - or at least his team - if they were reluctant, but at the same time I fully believe that if the money and conditions are right pretty much any fighter will fight any other fighter. These guys are professionals for one and also at the very top level these guys do not believe they are going to lose until they do. I think Golovkin would have gone into that fight fully believing he could win it, right up till the point he didn't.
End of the day it's academic however... the brief moment the fight was a real possibility Golovkin had what appeared to be more lucrative options on the table... what you're doing is attributing your own beliefs to that decision making process when there's a far clearer and more obvious explanation to hand. Money. You know what Occam's Razor is, man?Comment
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Again, that's not true. "50/50 money and weight would be fair" was a comment made by GGG in an interview with Max Kellerman. It was never demanded or insisted on during negotiations.
In fact, Tom Loeffler's response to the email offer to fight Ward at 168 was that GGG was focused on the WBC 160lb title, but would consider fighting Ward at 168 the following year (2017).
Btw, I'm wondering what you made of Ward calling out Mayweather at 160, but insisting that GGG had to move all the way up to 168 for him?Comment
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Huge GGG fan but stylistically I still lean towards Ward... however I certainly think GGG would have had a shot (I reckon it something like a kinda 65/35, 60/40 kinda fight) and absolutely in no way do I think it would have been the Ward masterclass some of these guys seem to imagine. As you say the Kovalev fight should have put to bed the idea that Andre was some kinda unbeatable boxing god. And yes, Golovkin is and was a considerably better technician than Kovalev, although Kovalevs rangy dynamism was probably a more awkward stylistic match-up far Andre.Comment
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