Comments Thread For: Hopkins: No Excuses, Golovkin Should Fight Kovalev!

[LetOutTheCage]

Bernard, what about GGG fighting Canelo before GGG moves up?

Also, what about you fighting GGG, even at a catch weight? Bet we don't hear from you about either of those topics.

Rubbish to even suggest that Hopkins would be afraid to fight GGG is a complete joke. Hopkins has ducked nobody, Hopkins got into the ring with a much bigger version of GGG in Kovalev and at the age of 49. A prime Hopkins schools GGG, and this is coming from someone who likes GGG.

[turnedup]

All these haters are scared as can be man. Dissing GGG's resume because he fought no one while defending the guys who are ducking him. Talk about a predicament. When articles come out about GGG fighting a real name or their favorite boxer, first reaction from most of them is.....

You know how it is, I call it "Floyd-Manny Syndrom." People who started liking the sport because of the drama surrounding those two fighters and can't enjoy boxing without a boogeyman and drama.

[turnedup]

You're right, it doesn't shit on GGG's resume, it projectile vomits on it.

Imagine it being like Canelo moving up and GGG beating him. But... a better version of Canelo. Twice.

Hopkins reign at middleweight is the single largest over hyped farce of that era and I say that proudly and will engage in a to the death debate on it if need be. His boxrec makes the argument pretty clear as well.

[Bronx2245]

Read the whole article bud. Loeffler said he rejected the 50-50 aspect fro a year later and rightly so. How do you agree to 50-50 with someone who has only fought twice in almost 3 years? At the same time, Loefflers words were something along the lines of We'll be willing to entertain a fight in early 2017 if Andre can still make weight. No one knows what weight Ward will be fighting at. Or something like that, its not verbatim.

Bottom line is this. Gennady wamted to fight in fall of 2015, Ward wanted to wait a year amd have tune ups. All the deflection in the world about Froch or Chavez does not change this fact... And thats a FACT...

October 9, 2015:

As the finishing touches were being made to Golovkin's October 17th unification with IBF champion David Lemieux - Ward's promoter, Roc Nation Sports Chief Operating Officer David Itskowitch, emailed an official offer to Golovkin's promoter, Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions.

According to Loeffler , the offer was rejected because K2 had already finalized Golovkin's upcoming HBO Pay-Per-View fight with Lemieux - and the winner would become the mandatory challenger to the November 21st showdown between WBC champion Miguel Cotto and Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.

Loeffler indicates that their strategy, since last year, has been to unify the middleweight division.

However, during that period they did explore potential fights at super middleweight with both Carl Froch and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

When it came it Ward, Loeffler and Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez made it very clear that a catch-weight of 164-pounds would be required. They also feel their boxer deserves a bigger portion of the monetary split. Roc Nation's offer was an even 50-50 deal.

Golovkin came under fire for his catch-weight demand. Loeffler explained that Golovkin fighting at the full weight limit of 168 would only be considered if the event was financially worth the risk. They felt a fight with Ward would not have generated the same financial benefits as a fight with Froch or Chavez.

“We’ve always said when we first got to HBO that we wanted to unify the titles. We said we’d move up to 168 for mega events. Fights with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Carl Froch would have been big events and that’s why we were willing to move up and we were willing to go down for a Floyd Mayweather fight before but we always said we wanted unification fights,” Loeffler told BoxingScene.com.

Michael Yormark, president and chief of branding and strategy for parent company Roc Nation, disputes some of the information being circulated in the press.

The Roc Nation executive reached out to BoxingScene.com to respond, on behalf of his company and their fighter, to some of the published statements from Golovkin's team members.

According to Yormark, Roc Nation was never afforded the opportunity to discuss weight, the financial terms, potential dates, which fighter was the A-side or any other factor - because their offer was turned down in 36 minutes.

"I respect Tom and he's a nice man, but as it relates to this issue - he's way off-base," Yormark told BoxingScene.com. "The chatter that you've been hearing from Triple G's camp is inappropriate, inaccurate and we need to clear this up immediately."

"Andre Ward has always fought the best opponents that were available, and that holds true today as well. We want to fight the best and we obviously consider Triple G a formidable opponent. We made an offer to fight Triple G. It was the number one priority on Andre's list."

"We made him an offer, prior quite frankly, to knowing about the fight with Lemieux. But regardless of that fight, the offer was very, very clear - that he and Andre would both have one fight before they fought each other, and they would fight each other sometime in the first half of 2016. So obviously the fight with Lemieux would continue to move forward and the next fight would be Andre in 2016.

"They received the offer and in 36 minutes we got a response which basically stated 'we cannot accept the offer and we're going in a different direction.' In 36 minutes [they turned it down], so that tells me there was not even any consideration given to the offer, because at the end of the day Triple G always knew that he would never fight Andre Ward. He's stated publically, and in writing, that he would go up to 168 to fight anybody but Andre. We put an official offer on the table and we got a 'no' in 36 minutes.

http://www.boxingscene.com/roc-natio...int_friendly=1

Spin it how you want, if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck...

[K-Nan]

Hopkins reign at middleweight is the single largest over hyped farce of that era and I say that proudly and will engage in a to the death debate on it if need be. His boxrec makes the argument pretty clear as well.

Boxrec aint necessary if you were around and watching the fights when they happened. In fact boxrec is a terrible way to analyze a champion's reign.

But please, explain how Bernard Hopkins has a worse MW reign than Gennady Golovkin?

[thack]

Bernard seems to have had that one fight too many and sounds like his fishnet wearing partner.

[turnedup]

Boxrec aint necessary if you were around and watching the fights when they happened. In fact boxrec is a terrible way to analyze a champion's reign.

But please, explain how Bernard Hopkins has a worse MW reign than Gennady Golovkin?

I didn't say it was worse, I said it wasn't as big a feat as it's made out to be. I'm a third generation boxing fan, i'm not new to this sport nor in my 20's either. I was around enough to remember the hate between bernard and Roy. Hopkins fought just as many no hopers as he's bashing this guy for fighting. Talent is talent period and people need to stop hating because Golovkin makes it look easy.

[LaidOut]

Damn, ol' Hops losing cool points fast. Master DLH working him like a puppet.

[GGG Gloveking]

Loeffler himself said they rejected Ward's 50/50 offer, and they wanted a catch-weight @ 164 for Ward, but not Chavez Jr. or Froch. Loeffler is GGG's promoter! That's a fact!

You said, in bold, Loeffler himself said... Then I give you a paraphrase of what Loeffler said to the LA Times about being willing to fight in 2017. To argue the point, you dont provide the LA Times article with actual quotes from Loeffer, you give me an "According to Loeffler..." then some quotes from Wards camp. The quotes dont even address whether of not Loeffler said they would be willing to fight in 2017.

I also find it strange that your article puts the time frame for the proposed GGG-Ward fight at the first half of 2016. According to the LA Times, the email offer called for a tune up fight in 2016. At the time, Ward was being considered for the Cotto-Alvarez card in November, which would have made for a tight time frame to get that tune up in.

You can claim Im spinning all you want, but one fighter wanted to fight next fight, the other said next year

[hitking]

Apparently you have lost your wanker too. Kovalev is 6 feet tall. This isn't the 1940s anymore. The average top heavyweight now is 6 foot 6 now. Fury 6 foot 9, Joshua 6 foot 6, BUM SQUAD 6 foot 7. Breazeale 6 foot 7. When Jones did it back in 2004 he picked the easiest champion, Ruiz, a guy who had one belt and was knocked unconscious in 25 seconds of the first round with one punch by David Tua. So don't even try. Try to find your wanker.

Who cares. Dare to be great. And if he moved up and got his ass kicked. He could come back down and continue to dominate the light heavyweight division. No harm done.