ATG: Who Ranks Higher, Gennady Golovkin or Nonito Donaire?

I'd vote Donaire.

Yes, GGG has less losses, but he also only won titles at 160 and never truly challenged himself at anything above minus Canelo paydays. Unless you are HW where there is nowhere to go up, if you think you have reached the near peak of your skills I wanted him to atleast try moving to 168 fully.

Or, if you are going to stay one division your whole career, I want to see them atleast go for the undisputed (see: Beterbiev), even if you consider that the alphabets mean not much. Random analogy, but Loma probably would've been the number one guy of 130 and gone undisputed if he stayed there the whole time and didn't challenge 135. Donaire also would've had less losses if he stayed at 118 and didn't challenge anything above IMO.

 

GGG beat Canelo's ass which is a better win then anything on Donaire's resume but Donaire has the better all around resume being a multi weight world champion. Head to head in terms of fighting ability GGG is the better fighter but Donaire has more accomplishments.

 

I went for GGG. I mean, I know he has a draw and 2 L’s to Canelo - but I think it’s a sickener, as had he got the correct result in Canelo 1, his overall ranking would’ve been massively improved. I also had him winning the second too. He lost so much to those cards in the first fight.

similarly Kovalev. Can you imagine how he would’ve been viewed had he been given the correct result in Ward 1? He lost so much more than just the fight. That was his signature legacy win.

 

Donaire simply because GGG was avoided like a plague.

 

Prime GGG is the best MW since prime Hopkins imo.. better than Martinez, Pavlik, Abraham etc.. fk those two BS Canelo decisions.. he won both convincingly.

 

Nonito Donaire is one of the greatest small fighters (under 130) in history............................any era. Golovkin is not one of the greatest MW's in history..................

I don't believe this to be a serious question. And I'm shocked and appalled that the poll is even as close as it is.

 

I think it's more complicated than that though. Golovkin struggled to get any of the other champs to fight him in the first place at 160. The reason he spent the bulk of his early career in Germany was because he wanted to land a fight with Sturm, who wasn't all too willing to fight Golovkin. When he moved over to the US and HBO he tried to fight Sergio Martinez who was already one-legged by that point and was looking for a final payday with Cotto. Then he tries to fight Cotto who was also on the downslope and who got his payday against Canelo, and, well, we all know it took Canelo a while before he got in the ring with GGG. After the 2 Canelo fights and the split with Abel Sanchez, the end of HBO boxing, Golovkin's new DAZN contract, and the fact he was getting older meant his career never got going that much while chasing a Canelo rubber match, so couldn't unify with guys like Jermall, Andrade, or BJS, or move up to grab a title at 168. He spent his whole career chasing the goal of being undisputed champion but circumstance and boxing politics got in the way. I know this will seem like a load of GGG fanboy excuses but it's important not to forget the fine print. Golovkin wasn't afforded the opportunity to go undisputed and there was never a point in his career where a move up in weight would have made sense (he would've been undersized at 168 anyway imo).

 

Id say Donaire, but I don’t think it’s the landslide many people here are making it out to be.

Donaire as great as he was, fell off the pound for pound list about as quick as he got on it in his first run, and his second was great but ultimately short lived and the quality of those wins is worse than GGGs, while his first run was probably around the same quality as GGGs…




The small guys really have been overrated recently, in a way to make the great guys sound even better I think.. Inoue and Donaire are definitely great, but the guys they were mostly washing were definitely not great, and not even very good compared to bigger fighters.

(this is why to me, Inoue just cant be ranked above Usyk or Bud)

GGG reigned for a long time and basically washed everyone he fought until he was clearly in decline / fighting the current pound for pound king at the time in Canelo.

Ultimately, they both lost a great fight against their best opponents… GGG-Canelo 1 is up for debate, but he lost the 2nd bout. Both great fighters who I am a huge fan of, thats for sure! Especially Donaire who always challenged himself to be great regardless of the odds - something GGG either didn’t do or didn’t get the opportunities to - to the same degree.

People bringing up Donaire bantamweight ranking compared to GGGs middleweight ranking is unfair… There aren’t nearly as many exceptional tiny men in the history of the sport, sorry…..

Again, I say all this, with my vote going to Donaire….

 

It's Donaire and it isn't even close. Let's take a deep look into Donaire's resume and accomplishments.
17-4 (12 KOs) in world title fights.
14-6 (10 KOs) against former, current, and future world champions:
Won against Vic Darchinyan (twice), Moruti Mthalane, Hernan Marquez, Volodymyr Sydorenko, Fernando Montiel, Omar Andres Narvaez, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka, Jorge Arce, Simpiwe Vetyeka, Ryan Burnett, and Nordine Oubaali.

IBF Champion at Flyweight after knocking out the fearsome undefeated number 1 ranked Vic Darchinyan in his first world title fight. Darchinyan would later move up and win the lineal/unified Super Flyweight titles.

Unified WBC/WBO Bantamweight champion after knocking out the fearsome number 1 ranked Fernando Montiel after Montiel had scored the biggest win in his career, knocking out long time Japanese WBC Bantamweight champion Hozumi Hasegawa.

Lineal WBO/IBF Super Bantamweight champion after beating long time WBC/Lineal Champion Toshiaki Nishioka.

WBA "Super" Featherweight title beating Simpiwe Vetyeka who had just beat long reigning featherweight champion Chris John.

He also beat number 1 ranked undefeated long time Super Flyweight Champion Omar Andres Narvaez at Bantamweight. So that's 4 number 1 ranked champions across 5 weight classes beaten by Nonito Donaire in his prime in Fernando Montiel, Toshiaki Noshioka, Vic Darchinyan, Narvaez. This isn't even talking about the later titles he won at Super Bantamweight and Bantamweight later in his career.

Golovkin in Comparison
15-2-1 (13 KOs) in world title fights
6-2-1 (5 KOs) against former, current & future world champions
Won against Kassim Ouma, Daniel Geale, David Lemieux, Kell Brook, Daniel Jacobs & Ryota Murata

Never beat the number 1 ranked champion in the only division he competed in and was also never lineal champion.
Won the vacant WBA title, the vacant WBC title, IBF title off of David Lemiuex, won another vacant IBF title vs Sir Gay Derevyanchenko and the WBA again from Ryoto Murata.


Sorry it isn't close, Donaire by leaps and bounds, Donaire is a legitimate ATG and first ballot HOF.

 

Love both fighters but for me it's Donaire and pretty clearly.

Titles won
112: IBF/IBO
115: WBA interim
118: WBC/WBO, WBA, WBC
122: WBO/IBF/Ring/Lineal, WBO
126: WBA

4-division champion and an interim belt, 7 world title reigns, 2 unified reigns, 10 major belts won, 1 minor belt, 1 interim belt, 1 lineal title.

 

I'm not saying GGG sux or anything, but in the end the results are that he stayed in 160 for essentially his whole career, didn't win anything at 168, and essentially retired with "Unified MW champion" as being his best professional achievement...which is very nice of him, but that is still that. Also, regarding the two bolded points, I think he should've gave up a bit earlier on the former and thought to become a multi-weight champion. Sure he may be undersized, but there has been many boxers that went beyond their ideal weight class for their size and still succeeded.

Going back to Loma just because he's a good example, but he is also undersized at 135 but still fought there and had multiple successful title wins. However if only for the purpose of record and going undisputed Loma probably could've stayed at 130 his whole career and possibly gone undisputed there. At the least, he won't have "lost" to Haney or Teo when he did, and given the 130 guys reigning right now I don't see who would've defeated Loma the past few years. However would Loma be better or worse regarded right now if he was only a 2-division champion that stayed at 130 until retirement, without the two losses but also without any of his 135 wins?

Interestingly in Donaire's case, his most ideal weight class was probably 118 given that he has been able to hit that limit in his 20s and 30s and probably could've stayed there had he focused on staying at that weight class and having to sacrifice something...whether it be size advantage or natural weight or power or whatever. Considering that, if you look at his 8 losses 2 were title fights at 126, 2 were title fights at 122, and one was his 2nd professional match at 112 as a teenager. Of his three losses at 118, two were against Inoue in unification fights which isn't exactly anything to be ashamed of in his mid-late 30s and the final one was possibly his final fight of his career at age 40 when he was trying to become the oldest bantamweight champion in history one last time against Santiago (surpassing his own record he held). In an alternate universe, maybe he could've been one of the longest reigning 118 kings from February 2011 when he first won the belts at 118 until November 2019 when he lost against Inoue at the finals of WBSS which was his first loss at 118 division. However, I'm not sure if his legacy would've been better or worse compared to what he is considered now in that case.

 

Donaire by a margin and I'm a bigger Golo fan.

 

nonito. not close.

 

This.

He's 'undefeated' at 160, and the greatest MW of the second decade of the century.

That said, I'd lean slightly towards Donaire.