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

[The Big Dunn]

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.

GGG avoided Ward, that's why PBP listed him with them.

[j0zef]

GGG avoided Ward, that's why PBP listed him with them.

I'm not rehashing this bull**** for the 2985th time. He did not. End conversation.

[-PBP-]

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.

Oh gawd. I knew a Golovkin fan would come running in here *****ing and moaning; slamming Rigo and Ward and defending Golovkin. But luckily I was prepared to combat the fanboyism because I am a fireman and the flames don't intimidate me, I control the flames.

As mentioned, Ward simply ran out of people to fight at 168. After all the smoke cleared, Carl Froch re-emerged as the top contender to Ward's reign in that division and the fight didn't happen. In hindsight, we know Froch likes to blow smoke and just says **** for the hell of it (see him trolling the fans with GGG) and Eddie Hearn is on record saying Ward is boring and they have no interest. With Ward's inactivity, his belts scattered all over the place and he had no fights left at 168. He tried to make a last ditch effort to fight GGG but it didn't happen. Clearly, he would have preferred to stay at '68 a little longer but there were no fights.

Now let's talk Rigo. As far as public profile, his public profile was at a peak when he beat Donaire. However, that was also a curse because it sent a message to everybody else that he was the real deal. In order to raise your public profile, you need a promoter and a network to back you; especially after getting the biggest win of your career. However, immediately after the fight, Arum and HBO went into full damage control mode (Donaire hurt his shoulder (sound familiar?), Donaire trained over the phone, Donaire just had a baby, Donaire was tired from his fighter of the year campaign, etc. etc. etc.) Rigo is a fighter, not a promoter.

As far as Golovkin, he doesn't have to move up now, he's got Canelo right where he wants him. But he will need to make concessions to make that fight happen before he loses his prime years. Let's wait and see what happens.

[SplitSecond]

GGG avoided Ward, that's why PBP listed him with them.

PBP doesn't think Golovkin ducked Ward.

[Pigeons]

Golovkin is a coward. He had a big fight available vs. Ward and he ducked it claiming he was too small. I have no problem with Cotto and Canelo avoiding Golovkin now. They are both junior middleweights. Just vacate the belt after the Khan fight and let Ducklovkin toil in irrelevance for the rest of his career.

[The Big Dunn]

I'm not rehashing this bull**** for the 2985th time. He did not. End conversation.

PBP doesn't think Golovkin ducked Ward.

I didn't use the word ducked. It is clear that HBO steered Ward away from GGG and that GGG was reluctant to fight Ward.

j0zef and other GGG fans refuse to admit this.

[-PBP-]

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.

So when is enough enough? Golovkin turns 34 in a month, and Rigo is probably 43.

Do you sit in the same division, hoping and praying that you get the big fight only to not get it for another 4-5 years? Or do you say OK, I'm going to start considering fighters in other weight classes to stay active, stay in the limelight and build my resume?

Canelo clearly feels he isn't ready for GGG. Why not shove it up the divas ass and come down a couple pounds to make it happen? Why let him string you out until your prime years are beaten out of you?

[daggum]

i would say rigo and ggg are opposites to ward.

ward had everything setup in his favor: being america, fighting on network tv from an early stage, having the super six setup in his favor, and he completely squandered it by turning down many great fights that ggg/rigo would kill for. he literally could have fought anyone at anytime at either 160/168 and he simply did not want to. he tried to fight gus like sartison/periban over and over. rigo/ggg on the other hand have tried to fight everyone in their division and even attempted to make fights outside their division if they had to.

[daggum]

I didn't use the word ducked. It is clear that HBO steered Ward away from GGG and that GGG was reluctant to fight Ward.

j0zef and other GGG fans refuse to admit this.

right....and ward wasn't reluctant when he turned the fight down a couple years ago? he wasn't reluctant when he wanted a 50-50 split for a fight that would happen in 15 months? oh yea and this fight would have happened after a proposed ggg-canelo matchup yet 50-50? come on. thats reluctance personified. that's a publicity stunt. ward steered himself away by not accepting teh fight and making silly unrealistic demands. blame ward. the guy who didn't want to fight anyone the last 4 years.

[daggum]

GGG avoided Ward, that's why PBP listed him with them.

lol oh dear. still running with this and ignoring facts and reality. still making up your own silly timelines about how the fight could have happened. still pretending that ggg shold have accepted a 50-50 split for a fight that would happen in 15 months after he was supposed to fight canelo. yea why a duck lol.