Bennie was nicknamed "Bad" for a reason. True Philly fighter and tough as old boots. He had 53 kos in 66 wins. Although he was always a contender and never champ he was the ultimate test for anyone. The Ring even ranked him in the top 100 punchers of all time. He wasnt a technical stalker like GGG he was pure pressure and aggression. Had a bowling ball head only ever stopped once, he slipped punches and loved to crowd on the inside. See his destruction of Tony Mundine. Bennie fought Middleweight champions Marvin Hagler, Vito Antuofermo, Rodrigo Valdez, Emile Griffith and Carlos Monzón. He also fought and defeated future light-heavyweight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. What a list.
GGG'S Body Shot would be my bet for this version of the caveman skull and caveman power vicious mauling that GGG WILL HAVE INFLICT upon the psycho- maniac Monzon had they went at it in their primes. GGG would EASILY GET INSIDE ON MONZON. Then Monzon would be hit to the body so hard that his internal organs would bleed after every punch, and his nerves and muscles would receive GGG FORCE IMPACT DAMAGE TOO. Monzon is the wrong guy to pick to beat GGG. SUGAR RAY ROBINSON COULD COME UP TO 154 AND STILL BEAT GGG AT 160 BECAUSE SRR WAS LIGHTENING FAST AND POWERFUL ENOUGH TO KEEP GGG OF AND EVEN STOP GGG.
GGG wouldn't go inside on Lemieux, Canelo, or Derevyanchenko. Couldn't get inside on Jacobs. Monzon might be slow footed, but Canelo stood right in front of GGG in their first fight and Golovkin didn't want to close in. Not how that fight plays out at all. The fantasy of GGG being a come forward knockout artist lies exclusively in his bouts with overmatched opponents that he did not respect.
Get inside on Monzon and viciously maul him? Golovkin might be capable of exerting pressure on opponents, but he isn't an infighter, his range is the medium range, he needs that bit of space to get his work off. I don't imagine that Golovkin would match the intensity of Briscoe if he was reluctant to go balls to the wall against a far less capable guy than Monzon in Lemieux (as the fellow above noted), but Monzon showed that he was plenty adept at dealing with the heat in any case. Probability is that we've got a boxing match in center ring here, folks. And Monzon was a fine boxer with excellent jab, timing/accuracy, workrate, toughness, composure, very good ring IQ and a good darn punch that would've kept Golovkin honest. It's hard to look past the Argentine wife-slayer.
Yeah, Golovkin is a mid range fighter. He's not infighting anyone. The man can't even throw body shots when someone fights back.
GGG doesn't throw body punches unless you're a helpless overmatched opponent, then GGG becomes an offensive beast.
I've always liked Hagler, Monzón and Toney (as well as SRR) over GGG: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...ead-ggg-or-canelo.632354/page-3#post-19927580 Other middleweights are debatable, but not those IMO.
Hmm, four on my list - who else is on yours? Spoiler (gonna hazard a guess, SRL? Or fudging things a bit to call Greb a MW?)