Can the GGG vs Beterbiev fight happen?

[Boxing Logic]

Team GGG were saying GGG could beat anyone from 154 to 175, and would fight anyone from 154 to 175, and that no one either 168 or 175 and below, I forget, would even go the distance with GGG.

What happened there, eh? Even little Canelo went the distance... twice. And Danny Jacobs too. And Dereyvanchenko too. Every half decent opponent even at 160 went the distance! Let alone 168 or 175! What a disappointing career.

But let's look ahead instead of to the past. In boxing terms, Beterbiev is old, and GGG is too. Meanwhile, Beterbiev vs Canelo keeps getting talked about as a viable fight at 175. GGG was competitive with Canelo in both fights. I mean, it looked like both were pulling their punches, but maybe Beterbiev can do that too so then it would still be a legitimate comparison.

I think as far as a "big drama show," emphasis on "show," for the crowd, GGG vs Beterbiev at 175 could still be as fun as any of these other pairings they can make from modern boxing's shallow talent pool. Already, most the interesting matchups in that weight neighborhood were squandered. Kovalev vs Stevenson. Kovalev vs Ward with fair officiating. Stevenson vs Ward. Beterbiev vs Ward. Beterbiev vs Stevenson. Beterbiev vs Kovalev. Gvozdyk vs Ward, Beterbiev, or Kovalev. Gvozdyk vs GGG, Stevenson vs GGG, Ward vs GGG, Kovalev vs GGG.

GGG vs Beterbiev might be the last chance to make one of those matchups in this era. Do you guys want to see it?

[Motofan]

Does GGG even fight anymore? I’ve always been a fan but he’s gonna be 40 in a few months. He’ll be a knockout waiting to happen before long and again I say this as a fan. 40 year old chins seem to shatter no matter whose it is.

[Boxing Logic]

Does GGG even fight anymore? I’ve always been a fan but he’s gonna be 40 in a few months. He’ll be a knockout waiting to happen before long and again I say this as a fan. 40 year old chins seem to shatter no matter whose it is.

Beterbiev will be 40 soon too. It's a good fight. From 160 to 175 the last few years there have been five special offensive talents to make great shows, GGG, Beterbiev, Kovalev, Stevenson, and Gvozdyk, and out of those 16 potential matchups, or whatever the number is, Boxing delivered, count 'em, ONE, Beterbiev vs Gvozdyk. Which, with the way Gvozdyk was so gunshy under Teddy Atlas, was an underwhelming fight and he performed like the worst of the five. Whereas based on prior performances, he had skills and power in the ballpark of the rest of them, but with the best size and reach of any of them.

Ward has as good skills as any of them also. I grew to appreciate his inside skills more as I became a hardcore boxing fan. What was aggrevating about his shows though was how inconsistent and one-sided the shows were. His power was almost Paulie Malignaggi levels at 168. I mean people said Usyk lacks power to go up in weight, but he's hurt basically every opponent he's ever fought multiple times, at cruiserweight, and hurt both his first two heavyweight opponents multiple times, and now his third also. Ward's power was not even doing very much of that at 168. And at 168, his chin was not great either. He showed vulnerability to being hurt vs feather fisted guys. But then at 175, suddenly he's a power puncher and also has a great chin.

Even the low blows, if that's the way to make a more entertaining show to let guys throw harder body shots below the belt than above the belt, because of the padding on the belt, then I have no issue with it, but with the Ward shows, apparently he was the only one at 168 or 175 who knows how to punch low.

So if they had made Ward more powerful at 168, with a better chin, and extremely durable to body punches and low blows, and then we got to see shows at 175 that actually made sense, where Kovalev hit him with the shots he did, and hit him with full power shots low in return, but Ward took them and outpointed Kovalev, fine. But for it to be so inconsistent, and for Kovalev, the one good matchup we got vs Ward his entire career, to suddenly become a 4 round fighter just in time for the Ward fight, it was aggravating. The Ward that we watched his whole career at 168 should have gotten knocked out by the top guys at 175, despite having better skills in some respects, and then his skills could have been appreciated more because the situation wouldn't have strained credibility so much.

Instead we got one good matchup at 175 against a guy who went from awesome looking to "he drinks so much and he's a 4 round fighter now," and who we're supposed to believe didn't know how to punch someone low back when they punched him back, or do basic fundamentals on the inside, or step back when an opponent does the same moves ducking under his jab to prevent them getting inside in the first place. And then Ward retired and we never got to see the two matchups vs the guys who would have beaten even the suddenly-totally-different Ward at 175.

Those were some of the best shows in the sport, and almost none of them happened. GGG-Ward. GGG-Kovalev. GGG-Beterbiev. Beterbiev-Ward. Beterbiev-Kovalev. Beterbiev-Stevenson. GGG-Stevenson... now that would have been awesome. And the list goes on. GGG-Gvozdyk would have been very intriguing. Gvozdyk-Ward. If Ward comes back those are the fights to make. Forget Canelo.

[Lance98]

ggg is too much of a cowardly, spineless jellyfish to step it up even when he was younger a couple of years ago. At this point, don't expect anything from him. He does not want to get in the ring with the current top guys in his own division, has no desire to move up to SMW, so what makes you think he will fight a dangerous LHW?

[Boxing-1013]

I'd like to see it, but I don't see how it happens. He should probably test out 168 first before taking on someone like AB anyway. Remember how much issue Ward had with Kov's power in their first fight early, you have to ease into match ups like that if you're coming up in weight.

GGG centered his career around waiting for/forcing the Canelo fight(s). Financially it turned out perfect for him. Legacy wise, well some people like me think he had a great career, others disagree. But there is hardly ever any consensus on legacy anyway.

[Boxing Logic]

I'd like to see it, but I don't see how it happens. He should probably test out 168 first before taking on someone like AB anyway. Remember how much issue Ward had with Kov's power in their first fight early, you have to ease into match ups like that if you're coming up in weight.

GGG centered his career around waiting for/forcing the Canelo fight(s). Financially it turned out perfect for him. Legacy wise, well some people like me think he had a great career, others disagree. But there is hardly ever any consensus on legacy anyway.

I don't remember Ward having any problem with Kovalev's power. It looked like Kovalev was pulling his punches, including on that knockdown that should have been a KO except he inexplicably slapped it instead of punching with his fist. And in case I had any doubts that those fights were bs, Kovalev pulled out the same **** against Canelo in an even more blatant and obvious way. Just my opinion, but my guess is they scripted that ridiculous finish in the second fight, with the low blows, as a way to distract from the fact the whole fights were fake. It also would explain why Kovalev put up so little resistance to the unfair tactics, and then fell on the ropes in just the perfect way that the ref could call it a TKO rather than just a knockdown.

Really, the whole "saga" looks suspect in hindsight. Kovalev just so happened to develop a bad drinking problem right at the time he was training to fight the P4P #2 fighter in the world? And also right around when he had a young child. At the very least Kovalev would have cut it down just to prove Team Ward wrong for calling him out about his drinking problem, because he supposedly disliked them so much. Or was that just an act too? Wouldn't surprise me. Just my opinion guys.

[KillaMane26]

What has GGG ever done to make you believe he would take a fight like this let alone at this age and obvious physical decline

[TMLT87]

Great fight that has virtually no chance of happening sadly.

[Caxcan]

GGG has never been willing to step outside of his comfort zone while preferring running with media hype. Even when people were trying to hype him as avoided, his team straight up refused fights with Lara who would have been his most proven opponent at that point: "When Tom came to me and offered Lara and Sergio Mora, I'm the one who said 'I don't want those fights.' I'm the one who said that before there was a chance to have it discussed with Gennady. I told that to Tom, because first of all Lara has not earned the right to fight Golovkin. And the reason I say that is because he takes fights like Delvin, and Delvin is not a bad fighter but he doesn't belong at that level. He struggled with Delvin. Yes he won every round but he didn't do what he needed to do in order to be in the mix,"

[Boxing Logic]

What has GGG ever done to make you believe he would take a fight like this let alone at this age and obvious physical decline

Exactly, that's the problem. I was literally one of his most active supporters online. Team GGG said he would fight anyone from 154 to 175, and I was the fool who believed them. It seems like now he's lost the majority of his fans, and I almost get the sense that his team doesn't understand why. Because they made a fool of all his fans! They hyped him as the original Star Wars movies, but then what they delivered was the Disney Star Wars movies!

But seriously though, it's kind of true.

And the whole time, the excuse they gave was that they had to wait for Canelo at 160. But now even after they got their two Canelo fights, and GGG performed terribly in both of them compared to his previous performances and capability, and now even after Canelo left 160 to boot, he's still at 160!!!!

I mean we saw from both Canelo vs GGG fights, let alone both their entire careers. GGG's one full power shot, to head or body, hurts Canelo more than five or ten Canelo shots, in combination all at once, to GGG's head or body. So if those were real fights, and if GGG vs Canelo is a real fight, then all GGG has to do is go in like Antonio Margarito (except GGG is way better, on top of it all) and beat him down like Margarito-Cotto 1. That's the perfect comparison because Cotto's style and characteristics are very similar to Canelo. GGG is way better than Margarito, and Canelo is slightly better than Cotto, but otherwise it a perfect comparison, except with GGG vs Canelo it shouldn't even take half as long because of Canelo's stamina and GGG's superior power and skills compared to Margarito.

But instead, for both fights, GGG was arm "punching," pitty pat, no body shots, the head shots were all sort of arm punches. All GGG had to do to KO Canelo, if the fights were real, was go in head first and make it a war. Take one, or even two, to give one, but make sure the "one" that you do give is a full power punch, like GGG supposedly threw in all his fights before, not pitty patter bs. Not only should those hurt Canelo even when he is fresh, considering that Liam Smith hurt Canelo not long before GGG fought him, especially to the body, but Canelo has a stamina problem to boot!

Really, Canelo is made to order for GGG! Shorter reach. Worse footwork. Worse stamina. For a stamina machine like GGG, a swarmer, a pressure-boxer puncher, that should be an easy fight! Maybe not for the first 4 rounds while the guy can counter you, but ultimately, what does it matter if he can't hurt you and the points he scores won't matter anyway when you stop him and the scorecards become irrelevant? It's just a bad style matchup for Canelo. When you have bad stamina, someone who can come at you all night and never stop throwing punches, and who can hurt you and drain your stamina on top of it, but who you can't hurt back, that's almost an impossible fight to win.

And yet, GGG let him have an argument for winning or at least tying the fight not once, but twice!!! It doesn't even make sense, if you understand boxing. And in the second fight, GGG was even backing up from him. Canelo came to him, which should really be irrelevant either way in this case, but if anything it just makes the job even easier, and instead of going to war, GGG backed up!

What happened to GGG supposedly taking punches on purpose? What happened to "big drama show"? If Margarito ran from Cotto instead of pressuring, and only threw pitty pat arm punches instead of going to war, Cotto would have beaten him too!

Even at 40 years old, unless GGG's chin is completely shot, he should be able to KO Canelo within 8 rounds by going at him like Margarito, Salido, etc, from the opening bell. You know, Mexican style. Or was that just one more fraudulent marketing promise to add to the list?

Look, just because Team GGG said he would fight and beat anyone from 154 to 175, and inferred he was clearly superior to Sergey Kovalev the #1 light heavyweight, doesn't mean his fans are entitled to demand that he go knock out Andre Ward, Kovalev, Beterbiev, etc, all in one round at 175, or otherwise abandon support for him. Of course not. But he didn't even deliver at 160 or 154!!! Let alone 168 or 175!!!! So on that basis, I do feel like yeah, GGG's fans are entitled to say, and really just admit to ourselves, yeah, we got taken for a ride. This guy was a talented, charismatic boxer, fun to watch, but at the end of the day, a lot of it was just marketing and hype, and as much as he talked about goals like undisputed, or beating the best guys from 154 to 175, his actions suggest he never cared about any of it, and it was all bs, and he was just waiting to fight Canelo for money.

Even before the first Canelo fight, GGG's trainer, Abel Sanchez, was talking about a trilogy. To me, that's very suspect when you have a fighter who is a KO machine and has never needed a rematch before. Why would that even be on your mind that you would have to fight this guy three times when you are so used to dominating opponents and only needing to fight them once? Very, very suspect, IMO. I think GGG will get his fans back only if he gets the third Canelo fight and goes in and does it like everyone was expecting him to the first fight, and then moves up in weight and a big legacy win at least at 168, maybe 175. If he can pull Ward out of retirement and beat him at either 168 or 175 or somewhere in between, after KOing Canelo, GGG might become the most popular boxer in the world. If not, I think his "boxing" career will go down as "could have, should have, but time to move on."