At 35, Golovkin has passed the boogeyman torch to Artur Beterbiev

The biggest boogeyman of the early to mid 2010's was Gennady Golovkin. Nobody really showed much interest in fighting him. There was a shocking amount of sissiness coming from the likes of the top MW's. Billy Joe Saunders even said "GGG knocks out me and Eubank Jr. on the same night". And he got Canelo Alvarez to literally give GGG his belt to avoid fighting him.

Now at 35 GGG doesn't have the same stamina he once had. Which is why he's no longer a pressure fighter. He's evolved more into a tactical lower workrate boxer-puncher.

Of the four main styles of boxer, boxer-puncher, puncher and pressure fighter, it is the pressure fighter that is the most physically draining to both the fighter AND his opponent. The idea is to basically win through attrition KO or outwork your opponent through damage given. It places more stress on your body than other of the 4 main styles by far. And yes some fighters don't fit neatly into a style like Pacquiao or Jones Jr., but most fighters tend to fall in under one of those 4 styles.

A pressure fighter walks down his opponent and cuts off the ring and usually has an iron chin. He is a boxers worst nightmare and since most top fighters are boxers or boxer-punchers they avoid them like the plague. They don't want it. It's easier for a master technician and well schooled boxer to take the play away from a puncher. Everybody always talks about the performances of fights like Barrera-Hamed, Mayweather-Corrales or even Loma-Walters. Well that's to be expected. A puncher has nothing for a boxer. A boxer can circle away from his power, stay out of range and counter against the technically limited fighter. You begin to think that looks easy, well it looks easy because it is easy. Now how do those guys look when they have to fight a pressure fighter? It's night and day. Salido roughed up Loma. And Castillo roughed up Mayweather. And he wanted no part of Paul Williams or Antonio Margarito.

Which brings me to my point. A pressure fighter is always boxing's biggest boogeyman. Nobody wants to deal with the attrition, the workrate, the tenacity and the just the general fact that they are in your grill for 36 minutes and they just won't get the **** away.

The biggest boogeyman in the 80s was Aaron Pryor. Sure, Ray Leonard fought some great fighters, but Aaron Pryor was always last on his hit list. He would just rather not deal with impending attrition fight that Pryor would force him into. Maybe he beats Pryor, hell I'd make him the favorite, but that's not the point. He was just like nah, I don't want to deal with that workrate, that's last on my priority list.

In the 90s it was guys like Nigel Benn who caused uneasiness. Roy Jones Jr. famously never fought a good young pressure fighter. He was happy to fight other boxers and even some bigger punchers. But pressure, he didn't want that.

In the 00's two men were huge boogeymen. Nobody really wanted a piece of Margarito. For 15 years he toiled as a professional and never got his fight until Cotto and then by that point he was over 30 which is borrowed time for a pressure fighter. The other was Paul Williams who caused the entire boxing world to lose their nuts except for Sergio Martinez.

They passed the torch to GGG. Who has now passed the torch to Beterbiev, another pressure fighter. Andre Ward has fought and beaten some good fighters including one possibly great fighter. But I doubt he fights Beterbiev anytime soon and I don't think the rest of the division is interested either. Sullivan Barrera flat ducked Beterbiev to fight a game Joe Smith, but also a very limited puncher in Joe Smith.

Beterbiev is just the next good young (well he's not that young actually) pressure fighter that nobody wants to fight for now. Who happens to be boxing's biggest boogeyman and in a few years as he's aged it will be another pressure fighter who nobody wants. It's the curse of being a good pressure fighter.

 

Yes, but that's also because Brook is a WW and GGG knew that a man that small had nothing for him. GGG got him out easy early.

Against Jacobs we saw GGG box and move. 4 years ago ago he cuts the ring, defends and then unloads the pressure.

 

Maybe defensively you are right. But now GGG is 35 and his stamina has taken a dive. He simply cannot maintain a pressure style workrate anymore. Look at how he was against Curtis Stevens. Can he still do that?