That's a wonderful fight. That would be an absolute treat of ebb and flow and maybe balance, it might go back and forth a bit as the two fighters counter one another in terms of strategy and individual punches, positioning, range, it'd be interesting to see Golovkin control the range against Maxim. In terms of size, i'm not worried about it, Golovkin probably is a little bit smaller, he was never a huge middle, but it wouldn't matter because of their relative punching power. Maxim won't be able to rough Golovkin u p with violence. Another nice reverse is that Maxim, on paper the bigger fighter, he'd be the one that might like to brush up inside and do exchanges - also weird for the lighter puncher. Very pleasing all of this. So Golovkin is the man more interested in exchanges, and that's the most interesting aspect of the fight - Golovkin's technical precision versus Maxim's defensive tightness. I think that it'll matter who controls the range, I think Golovkin will want to work more at range and Maxim will want to work inside, he'll look to be ear-to-ear more than Golovkin would like, so controlling the work while closing the distance will be a key skill for Golovkin, and it is one he is good at. I'm fascinated that both fighters love to fall into a rhythm and i'm fascinated by how those rhythm's would clash, it would be tides meeting. My guess is that Maxim will need to throw more punches to win and whether or not he would be able to do that would be about how much he gets to work on the inside, so 1) that clash of tides and who controls them more for longer and 2), sorry but the referee really matters. 15 rounds, small ring, 1950 ref, Maxim would be my pick, 12 rounds, big ring, 2020 ring, Golovkin would be my pick. Great fight in any circumstances.
