The Penalty For Being Too Good (Rigondeaux, Golovkin, Ward)

[-PBP-]

For all of you with short attention spans, I bolded my main points.

In 2004, 3 star Olympians emerged and had the world of boxing heavily anticipating their next moves:

Guillermo Rigondeaux (2X gold medalist)
Gennady Golovkin (Silver medalist)
Andre Ward (Gold Medalist)

Rigondeaux hit the fast track. Won a title in 9 fights, unified titles/lineal champion in 11 and defeated a top 5 pound for pound future hall of famer.

Golovkin wasn't so lucky. Made some bad business moves early in his career and didn't hit the ground running until later. Still was able to unify titles and clean out much of his division.

Ward like Rigo also got off to an excellent start. Was fortunate enough to have a tournament that forced the top guys to fight each other and came out on top. His problem, after beating Froch, Kessler, Bika and Abraham, there was no one left for him to fight. (lol @ Boo-Tay)

So in summary, Rigo, Golovkin and Ward did damage in their divisions, unified titles and became the man to beat in their division. So what's the problem?

------------------

Rigondeaux, Golovkin and Ward are too good. Head and shoulders above anybody that walked through their divisions. Usually when you have a fighter head and shoulders above everybody in his division, everybody wants to fight him. But by fighting Mayweather, Pacquiao and Wlad, you got mega paydays. By fighting Rigo, Golovkin and Ward, you get an ass kicking, look silly and leave with a couple hundred grand. Who wants to do that?

So what happens? All of these "inferior contenders": The Santa Cruz's, Frampton's, Quigg's, Avalos', Sturms, N'Dam's, etc. avoid fighting the best guy in the division because:

1. They can't win because they aren't good enough and,
2. They can get bigger paydays taking easier fights

That's all there is to it. If you believe you can knock off the top dog, you fight him. Donaire fought Rigo because he knew he could win. Canelo fought Lara because he knew he could win. These guys were way bigger stars and way more accomplished than the divas you see today.

So my question is:

Why do we want to see this fights in the first place?

Frampton/Quigg/Avalos/Santa Cruz can't beat Rigondeaux
Jacobs/Quillin/Sturm/N'Dam/Martinez/Cotto can't beat Golovkin

It's a waste of time. That's why.....

Golovkin and Rigo need to take the Andre Ward route, take matters into their own hands and find the big fights themselves. Great fighters need to lure in the competition by making themselves more vulnerable and giving concessions.

That's just the price great fighters have to pay. The Penalty for Being Too Good.

[E-Thug]

For all of you with short attention spans, I bolded my main points.

In 2004, 3 star Olympians emerged and had the world of boxing heavily anticipating their next moves:

Guillermo Rigondeaux (2X gold medalist)
Gennady Golovkin (Silver medalist)
Andre Ward (Gold Medalist)

Rigondeaux hit the fast track. Won a title in 9 fights, unified titles/lineal champion in 11 and defeated a top 5 pound for pound future hall of famer.

Golovkin wasn't so lucky. Made some bad business moves early in his career and didn't hit the ground running until later. Still was able to unify titles and clean out much of his division.

Ward like Rigo also got off to an excellent start. Was fortunate enough to have a tournament that forced the top guys to fight each other and came out on top. His problem, after beating Froch, Kessler, Bika and Abraham, there was no one left for him to fight. (lol @ Boo-Tay)

So in summary, Rigo, Golovkin and Ward did damage in their divisions, unified titles and became the man to beat in their division. So what's the problem?

------------------

Rigondeaux, Golovkin and Ward are too good. Head and shoulders above anybody that walked through their divisions. Usually when you have a fighter head and shoulders above everybody in his division, everybody wants to fight him. But by fighting Mayweather, Pacquiao and Wlad, you got mega paydays. By fighting Rigo, Golovkin and Ward, you get an ass kicking, look silly and leave with a couple hundred grand. Who wants to do that?

So what happens? All of these "inferior contenders": The Santa Cruz's, Frampton's, Quigg's, Avalos', Sturms, N'Dam's, etc. avoid fighting the best guy in the division because:

1. They can't win because they aren't good enough and,
2. They can get bigger paydays taking easier fights

That's all there is to it. If you believe you can knock off the top dog, you fight him. Donaire fought Rigo because he knew he could win. Canelo fought Lara because he knew he could win. These guys were way bigger stars and way more accomplished than the divas you see today.

So my question is:

Why do we want to see this fights in the first place?

Frampton/Quigg/Avalos/Santa Cruz can't beat Rigondeaux
Jacobs/Quillin/Sturm/N'Dam/Martinez/Cotto can't beat Golovkin

It's a waste of time. That's why.....

Golovkin and Rigo need to take the Andre Ward route, take matters into their own hands and find the big fights themselves. Great fighters need to lure in the competition by making themselves more vulnerable and giving concessions.

That's just the price great fighters have to pay. The Penalty for Being Too Good.

One hundred percent true, fantastic post as always. Ward's at the most advantageous of the three at the moment since he has a super fight with Kovalev lined up but in essence yes, no one wants to fight these 3 fighters at all

[SplitSecond]

Lmfao@ Ward and concessions.

It's a good post for the most part though.

[-DSG-]

For all of you with short attention spans, I bolded my main points.

In 2004, 3 star Olympians emerged and had the world of boxing heavily anticipating their next moves:

Guillermo Rigondeaux (2X gold medalist)
Gennady Golovkin (Silver medalist)
Andre Ward (Gold Medalist)

Rigondeaux hit the fast track. Won a title in 9 fights, unified titles/lineal champion in 11 and defeated a top 5 pound for pound future hall of famer.

Golovkin wasn't so lucky. Made some bad business moves early in his career and didn't hit the ground running until later. Still was able to unify titles and clean out much of his division.

Ward like Rigo also got off to an excellent start. Was fortunate enough to have a tournament that forced the top guys to fight each other and came out on top. His problem, after beating Froch, Kessler, Bika and Abraham, there was no one left for him to fight. (lol @ Boo-Tay)

So in summary, Rigo, Golovkin and Ward did damage in their divisions, unified titles and became the man to beat in their division. So what's the problem?

------------------

Rigondeaux, Golovkin and Ward are too good. Head and shoulders above anybody that walked through their divisions. Usually when you have a fighter head and shoulders above everybody in his division, everybody wants to fight him. But by fighting Mayweather, Pacquiao and Wlad, you got mega paydays. By fighting Rigo, Golovkin and Ward, you get an ass kicking, look silly and leave with a couple hundred grand. Who wants to do that?

So what happens? All of these "inferior contenders": The Santa Cruz's, Frampton's, Quigg's, Avalos', Sturms, N'Dam's, etc. avoid fighting the best guy in the division because:

1. They can't win because they aren't good enough and,
2. They can get bigger paydays taking easier fights

That's all there is to it. If you believe you can knock off the top dog, you fight him. Donaire fought Rigo because he knew he could win. Canelo fought Lara because he knew he could win. These guys were way bigger stars and way more accomplished than the divas you see today.

So my question is:

Why do we want to see this fights in the first place?

Frampton/Quigg/Avalos/Santa Cruz can't beat Rigondeaux
Jacobs/Quillin/Sturm/N'Dam/Martinez/Cotto can't beat Golovkin

It's a waste of time. That's why.....

Golovkin and Rigo need to take the Andre Ward route, take matters into their own hands and find the big fights themselves. Great fighters need to lure in the competition by making themselves more vulnerable and giving concessions.

That's just the price great fighters have to pay. The Penalty for Being Too Good.

Good thread and I agree Rigo and Golovkin both need to move up like Ward is doing.

[.!WAR MIKEY!.]

Rigondeaux hit the fast track. Won a title in 9 fights, unified titles/lineal champion in 11 and defeated a top 5 pound for pound future hall of famer.

Golovkin wasn't so lucky. Made some bad business moves early in his career and didn't hit the ground running until later. Still was able to unify titles and clean out much of his division.

Ward like Rigo also got off to an excellent start. Was fortunate enough to have a tournament that forced the top guys to fight each other and came out on top. His problem, after beating Froch, Kessler, Bika and Abraham, there was no one left for him to fight. (lol @ Boo-Tay)
[/U][/B]

pssssh homie please they all have a date with destiny lined up! That Grim Reaper doesnt let anyone slide!

[-PBP-]

Santa Cruz

[kiaba360]

The match-ups should happen because fights are won inside the ring. To say that the top guy is "too good" not only excuses these contenders, but feeds into the "fantasy win" bull**** ("the fight won't happen, but he would beat him anyway..."). It's hype machine tactics.

Ward was screwed at 168 because he wouldn't be able to face the biggest contender (DeGale) due to HBO/Haymon politics; however, it's possible that he outgrew the division at the perfect time. How many guys ducked Ward @168?

GGG moves up to 168 and would have to deal with the same **** that he deals with now. Take out all of the Haymon-affiliates, and what is he left with? Sturm/Smith/Abraham/Ramirez/Chudinov and that's being optimistic. I would love to see GGG bludgeon Sturm, but I heard he's retiring. Chudinov already said he isn't experienced enough, and Arum is the one doing all the talking for Ramirez.

126 is a busier division than 122, but will Rigo get the top guys? Loma seems like the only one interested, and would politics get in the way of Rigo vs. Haymon fighters? At least HBO wouldn't be involved.

[CubanGuyNYC]

By fighting Rigo, Golovkin and Ward, you get an ass kicking, look silly and leave with a couple hundred grand.[/B] Who wants to do that?

Great post, but this is my favorite part. Actually made me lol.

[The Big Dunn]

Excellent post. Ever since Tyson sold so much with McNeely the boxing powers that be are convinced stars and not quality fights drive sales. SO they have gone about building stars rather than forcing great fights where the winner is rewarded.

Star building requires a great deal of resources-particularly in marketing and promoting. Once Rigo beat Donaire IMO that made it almost impossible moving forward that a great fighter without a huge fanbase will get a fight like that.

It shouldn't be a surprise that HBO, who used significant resources to build GGG and used even more to sign Canelo over from SHowtime, isn't going to match GGG and Canelo, or Ward with GGG. Same for Chocalito, Kov, Crawford. Al is doing the same thing with his top guys.

Hopefully this changes and soon. Boxing is at its best when winning matters and taking the best fights yields the biggest purses.

[j0zef]

I don't understand why you're lumping Ward with Rigo and Golovkin. Golovkin and Rigo are being avoided. Ward is not. He beat most of SMW, and never expressed interest in fighting the others after the come back [minus a couple of Haymon names].

Ward's moving up because HBO wants to get their money's worth for giving him a rich contract. From the Barrera negotiations we found out that Ward is trying to get every dollar possible for fighting trashcans, and HBO did not want to buy it. He's not "taking matters into his own hands". He's publicly stated a few months ago that "They're trying to get him beat by making him fight Kovalev", which of course was bull****. He wanted to get paid, so he took a contract from HBO. HBO doesn't want to pay him $2M to fight Paul Smiths of the world. They wont be making any money on his fights until Kovalev (they hope).

As for Ward giving up concessions, please tell me you're joking. He's notorious for only fighting on his home turf (Barrera's also in Oakland), he made Dawson drain down to 168. For his tuneups against Kovalev, he's tried to bring SMWs up to 175 (Murdoch).

Rigo is not doing himself any favors. He has not fought anyone with a pulse in years, does nothing to try to increase his public profile, and still has high monetary demands. Yes, Rigo is being avoided. But half the reason he's being avoided are absolutely, unequivocally his fault.


Rigo tried to move up against Loma (offered 124 cw), which was refused. Golovkin tried to move up against Froch and Ward, and down vs. Floyd. All other big names for Golovkin are with Haymon, and until Wade fight those fights had no chance of being made. Even now, it's arguable whether or not any of the elite Haymon SMWs would face Golovkin.