When was GGG’s prime and when did he start declining?

[DeeMoney]

I think his prime was during the Lemieux fight, can't quite remember. I started seeing signs of fading during the Jacobs fight.

I think you could clearly see him not being as good as he once was by the Lemieux fight. I think he was able to cover up his aging in the fight by just jabbing and out-foxing Lemieux, which Lemmy was tailor made for.

He still had the know how to cut-off the ring and trap an opponent, but physically he I feel like he looked as if he was beginning to slide. Its understandable though, dude was 33 1/2 by then, your body just doesnt produce like it used to by that age.

[-Kev-]

Why would Canelo wait to fight him after 35?

GGG’s name made headlines at age 30 when he beat Proksa. When Canelo was fighting at 154. When GGG’s name started getting plastered everywhere in 2012, Canelo was 22 years old. With a very short amateur career, Canelo was doing on-the-job training so to speak.

While GGG was looking for fights vs the mediocre top guys at MW like Sturm and Quillin, Canelo was fighting stylistically risky opponents like Mayweather, Trout and Lara. Be advised, Canelo, at this time, was being accused of ducking Trout and Lara by the boxingscene faithful...no one cared about Canelo vs GGG at this time. People were actually calling for Sergio Martinez to fight GGG.

While GGG and his fans were calling for fights vs the older, close to retirement fighters like Cotto and Martinez, Andre Ward was calling out GGG at 168. Which GGG declined. Then said he’d fight him at 164lbs, knowing Ward, who would fight GGG at 168, was about to move up to 175lbs. Be advised, at the same time, GGG said he would go up to 168 to fight Chavez Jr, and was also saying he would fight a 40 year old Froch, who was mulling a move to 175 if he kept fighting, at a catchweight of 166.

So the harder the opponent, the lower the catchweight. 168, 166, 164. Lol.

Cotto and Martinez fought and then Cotto offered GGG $800k in step aside money so he and Canelo can fight, which GGG took. Be advised, GGG was the mando and could have gotten his title shot because it was already owed to him. He took the money instead of the title shot.

Canelo beat Cotto to become the Ring/WBC champ at 160. After having his first fight above 155lbs vs Chavez jr (164.5lbs), Canelo agreed to fight GGG at 160.

I’d say Canelo, who did not have the luxury of having 500 amateur fights, was brought up accordingly and fought GGG when he (Canelo) was at his best. Let’s not act like GGG was some past prime bum. He was the #1 ranked MW, and was favored to beat Canelo by bettors and fans. The majority of fans actually claimed GGG would win by brutal stoppage. But after the fact, he was conveniently 35. Canelo waited for him to get old.

[daggum]

when he knocked over tomato can number 655 he looked sharp

[The D3vil]

2010-2015.

Ages 28-33, just like virtually every other athlete on planet earth other than Hopkins, Floyd, Moore, and a few other freaks

[KingHippo]

riiiiiiiiiight

so, the first time you noticed him slip... just so happened to be the first time Golovkin stepped up to fight a genuine world-class opponent?

wow, what a coincidence

most say he slipped before then, so they have an excuse for the way he performed in that fight

No, really because I only watch his meaningful fights, and unfortunately, he doesn't have too many of them. Didn't look too great against Brook either, but that would've been premature. But you could clearly see that he didn't have his legs under him in that Jacobs fight.

[KingHippo]

I think you could clearly see him not being as good as he once was by the Lemieux fight. I think he was able to cover up his aging in the fight by just jabbing and out-foxing Lemieux, which Lemmy was tailor made for.

He still had the know how to cut-off the ring and trap an opponent, but physically he I feel like he looked as if he was beginning to slide. Its understandable though, dude was 33 1/2 by then, your body just doesnt produce like it used to by that age.

What I noticed is that Golovkin used to be much more springy backed them. He could control distance better and just overall had much better footwork. And his body looked somewhat deflated to me in the Jacobs fight, but maybe that's just me.

[Da Pimper]

GGG’s name made headlines at age 30 when he beat Proksa. When Canelo was fighting at 154. When GGG’s name started getting plastered everywhere in 2012, Canelo was 22 years old. With a very short amateur career, Canelo was doing on-the-job training so to speak.

While GGG was looking for fights vs the mediocre top guys at MW like Sturm and Quillin, Canelo was fighting stylistically risky opponents like Mayweather, Trout and Lara. Be advised, Canelo, at this time, was being accused of ducking Trout and Lara by the boxingscene faithful...no one cared about Canelo vs GGG at this time. People were actually calling for Sergio Martinez to fight GGG.

While GGG and his fans were calling for fights vs the older, close to retirement fighters like Cotto and Martinez, Andre Ward was calling out GGG at 168. Which GGG declined. Then said he’d fight him at 164lbs, knowing Ward, who would fight GGG at 168, was about to move up to 175lbs. Be advised, at the same time, GGG said he would go up to 168 to fight Chavez Jr, and was also saying he would fight a 40 year old Froch, who was mulling a move to 175 if he kept fighting, at a catchweight of 166.

So the harder the opponent, the lower the catchweight. 168, 166, 164. Lol.

Cotto and Martinez fought and then Cotto offered GGG $800k in step aside money so he and Canelo can fight, which GGG took. Be advised, GGG was the mando and could have gotten his title shot because it was already owed to him. He took the money instead of the title shot.

Canelo beat Cotto to become the Ring/WBC champ at 160. After having his first fight above 155lbs vs Chavez jr (164.5lbs), Canelo agreed to fight GGG at 160.

I’d say Canelo, who did not have the luxury of having 500 amateur fights, was brought up accordingly and fought GGG when he (Canelo) was at his best. Let’s not act like GGG was some past prime bum. He was the #1 ranked MW, and was favored to beat Canelo by bettors and fans. The majority of fans actually claimed GGG would win by brutal stoppage. But after the fact, he was conveniently 35. Canelo waited for him to get old.

What a load of shyt. You wrote 6 paragraphs of rambling bullshyt without answering the question.

[xhiddenx87]

the lemiux fight was his last fight as a prime GGG. After that you can NOW se he wasnt at his best no more.

He literally crushed people, after that he was just winning(jacobs) and beating people we all knew were going to lose(martiriosan whatever his name)

[Boxing-1013]

Unpopular opinion - I don't think he is too far removed from what he was at his best. I think the slippage that some have seen from him is played up on both sides. I do think he has gradually slowed down a bit of course.

But Lemieux and Stevens went 9 rounds with him. Maybe winning 1-2 rounds out of 18. Murray went 11, maybe winning 1 round. GGG has always been an outwork you, wear you down, type of fighter/puncher.

It is not that surprising that with Danny's chin holding up, he was able to last 12 rounds, and score a few rounds better than Stevens, Murray and Lemieux. I think what people overrate there, and slight GGG with, is that Danny really did anything more than get 4 rounds.

Same honestly for Canelo in both of those fights. Derevy gave him a tough fight, but I think that fight was all about motivation - Derevy had all of the motivation and GGG just went in there too casually. If they fought again I would favor GGG to stop Derevy. Derevy with his high activity, is also a tough matchup for GGG, and most fighters.

He never stops and picks up up a lot of points with his workrate. That neutralized GGG's main advantage, which is his workrate. If Derevy was American or with the right promoter, he surely would not have 3 losses, and may not have 1.

GGG haters hate him so much, that if anyone went 12 rounds with him, they were willing to make it out to be a loss with Jacobs and Canelo, and tried to make those fights out to be closer than they were.

Danny and Canelo 1 came to survive. Danny's chin held up, and Canelo moved better than expected, and his stamina held up. As a result, they went 12 rounds and got 4 of the 12.

Fight 2 Canelo found his balls and hasn't looked back since. He now looks like a serious contender for the best fighter in the world, whereas before it was quite a bit of smoke and mirrors. Even still in fight 2, I think you would hard pressed to give Canelo more than 4 rounds. About half the rounds were close, and about half the rounds pretty clear for GGG, where he outlanded Canelo by like 5+ punches and landed the better shots of the round.

---

TLDR - he has slowed down some, but is largely what he was. People overhype how well Canelo and Danny did against him. Derevy did the best and had a legit claim to winning, but I think that was more due to matchup and motivation that Dervy comparatively did that well. And a bit of age.

[Jacobson]

I say his prime was 2013 against Macklin and Ishida.

Since the Stevens fight he seems not as fluid as before.