Depends on one's starting point. A) Canelo is a great fighter B) Canelo is a protected fraud C) Everything in between I guess a lot of people want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to label Canelo a nothing fighter but enhance Golovkin's legacy for a win over him. What this means for Golovkin's legacy is tied to how highly you rate Canelo.
The regular title in that case might as well have been the real title as Sturm refused to fight his mandatory in GGG and as a result wasn't stripped of his belt, instead elevated to "super champion" and allowed to fight whoever.
I'm pretty sure he said he'd fight anyone up to 168 was it? Ward approached him with a 50/50 fight purse and he rejected it. Whole while he sat on his hands since the 2nd Canelo fight he had Charlo and Andrade chomping at the bit to fight him if they couldn't get Alvarez. Realistically he could be the undisputed middleweight champ at this point, it's been nearly 4 years since the 2nd fight. He hasn't tried to move up either, yet he will to fight Canelo. He's led a mostly Canelo or nothing career since the 1st fight and you guys have been giving him the biggest pass I've ever seen on this site. I guarantee had that been Alvarez or any number of other "minority " fighters, it would be far from ok and commendable. Please explain to me what legit risks he's taken, while waiting for his paydays?
No one in their right mind would have accepted a 50-50 there. Why would 3G take a 50-50 w/ a guy who couldn't draw flies?? Those are what are called "Non-offers". They are made simply knowing they will be turned down on principle. No one is required to move up in weight so long they can make weight.
This is the exact thing I mean, since when was GGG this massive draw that he can afford to turn his nose up at a fight like the Ward fight? That fight would have made him the actual star you perceive him to be had he won. And yes no one is required to move up in weight but it would have been nice to see the great and powerful GGG at least fight the other champions at his weight since he decided to hang around there. Do I need to tell you why? You're boxing fan enough to know exactly why but I'll spell it out for sake of discussion.... There wasn't enough money in it, especially citing the risk he'd take of losing another Canelo fight. He wasn't a big enough draw to take other big fights in his own division to make them worthwhile.
I like Ward and give him a pass on many things despite him being one of the dirtiest fighters I have seen, but if anything in this story with GGG, he is the one who didn't want the fight at reasonable conditions. As for Charlo and Andrade, saying GGG didn't want the fight with them is laughable. Charlo has 0 chance for at least 3 more years even with Gokovkin's age given the gap in skills between the two. As for Andrade, you saying G hasn't fought anyone since Canelo is a funny thing when you look at Andrade's record. Besides, it's Golovkin who was avoided like plague for more than half a decade, not any of these two, so expecting Golovkin to need to fight them now that he is 40 sounds like BS I'll give you that he probably chased the 3rd bout vs Canelo a bit too much, but who among the current 160 fighters has fought better competition at MW since his first bout with Canelo?
As I mentioned previously since when has GGG been some huge draw. The guy has fans but he's nowhere near what we'd be led to believe. Ward was like P4P no.2 at the time if I recall correctly. GGG didn't want smoke just like anytime a non Canelo decent fighter asks to face him. We can't act like Charlo and Andrade weren't worthy of the fight based on "who did they fight?" and then act as if GGG deserves the Canelo fight when the same conditions exist. The thing about Charlo and Andrade is this, not that they are boogeymen but why not fight them when they were the other champs in the division and his profile could still use a bit of building as far as resume is concerned. Now thats hes 40 also signifies that perhaps he doesnt even deserve the 3rd fight if its too much of a chore to ask him to face lesser opponents. GGG could have been walking into the 3rd Alvarez fight having done his part to make it even bigger by becoming undisputed at middleweight and they could have easily been signing an undisputed vs. undisputed clash. How big could this have been for the sport?
Since he was selling out LA and NY? Beating Ward would not have made much a difference on his star power. He tried to get other champs in his weight to fight. You do know that, yeah? WTF does this part even mean???
Being P4P means nothing in the reality of the sport. Doesn't mean you deserve any more money than one can garner on their own. He fought Danny Jacobs and Sergiy Dev FFS. Both very good MW's. Nothing but false equivalency here. Charlo and Andrade aren't to 3G what 3G was to canelo FFS.
One of Hopkins Supposed defenses was a no contest, so actually Hopkins has 19 defenses. Unless a no contest counts as a defense.
