"Golovkin has to move up" -wrong. Lemme cut you off there. He actually doesn't, ever.

All he needs do is stay white and pay taxes (15% of his purses and residuals to Astana, to be exact, for make benefit glorious nation, et cetera) - and continue to serve as the friendly, smiling chimney-sweep of middleweight.

Saúl Álvarez doesn't stand a chance, granted, and will be a fish in a barrel way of gaining a plume à son chapeau and boosting his star power and future negotiating-table "A-side" leverage if & when they meet up - but, Canelo isn't the only middleweight out there at the moment. There are good, ACTUAL middleweights out there.

Jacobs. BJS. CEJ. All young, proven and ready to go. Then you have veteran contenders Lee and HNN still hanging around, both with a long history of having their names linked with GGG's, and both with a long shot chance of beating him (via explosive puncher's chance and combined off-the-canvas resiliency & slippery movement, respectively). El Gaucho de Pigüé is there in the mix too - of course GGG would be slated if he fought him, but the guy is a solid natural MW and not an easy assignment for any of the elite at 160lbs...and has earned a shot at the big time. Likewise true of Khurtsidze. In the pipeline you have Khytrov, Murata, Falcão, Quigley, Derevyanchenko, Centeno, Arias, Castaño, Blanco, and Gausha - youthful, unbeaten and talented all; bounding after the mechanical rabbit and eager to build up their name in time for a chance to cash in (and prove their mettle) with the greatest PPV attraction in Kazakh pugilist history.

There is plenty for Golovkin to do right where he is for pretty much the rest of his viable years in the sport, without ever moving up in weight. The only reason he should ever do that would be if he begins to struggle to make the weight.

Will it be comparable to Hagler's long dominion over the same one division? No, obviously not, because there aren't the couple of names anywhere in the above list to push him over the edge to get there. Falling short of the Marvelous one, however, is hardly a failure - or a fair benchmark for having put together a terrific career of his own and justifiably digging both heels in and standing pat. Longevity, with enough abundance of solid challengers, is enough to buy passage into the realm of 'greatness' even without any singular unicorn-like 'prime ATG' standout opponents. I'd be just as happy to dole out credit for a timeline of defeating the gauntlet of Álvarez, Saunders, Jacobs, Eubank, Lee, N'Dam, and then any 2-3 (let alone more) of the young hungry lions I named earlier - pretty much whichever establish themselves as in-demand unmissable dance partners the quickest - as I would for bailing on the class altogether to, say, get by DeGale, Jack and GRS only to have that Icarus-and-the-sun moment and get cherry-popped at 175lb by Ward.

 

...or never end up happening, as far as I'm concerned.

If he takes on even half a dozen of the names I put forth, even with a couple of tuneups in between (paging dudes of the Antoine Douglas, Latin Snake, Gary O'Sullivan, etc ilk - please step in queue and wait your turn for Good-Boy treatment) he will have done nothing wrong. He will have made the most of the hand dealt him in his era and had a perfectly respectable career.

There are no "HUGE NAMES" at SMW currently anyway. Not the current titlists, and not in all likelihood any of the developing youngsters any time in the near future. The only thing for him to go chasing after in terms of a mega event is Ward, and that is asking him to climb up 2 divisions for a match in which he is stylistically disadvantaged anyway, which is unfair. Golovkin would be minuscule at LHW. Not ridiculously undersized perhaps, but given his style, and given the fact that 175 fits Ward like a glove and that size would just be icing on the cake of natural advantages Ward has over him...

If he says "fuck that" and handles business at 160lbs, really everybody needs to STFU and just be cool with that.

 

He didn't look great versus Guy, but then again to be fair every young prospect has the odd wonky night. (and some are just unfortunate to have it be nationally televised and criticized harshly for it)

 

:good

...but they'll be only too happy to hoot and holler about how stupid he was to leave MW if and when he is beaten at some higher weight...and yet, paradoxically they won't give him credit if he does move up and beat guys like Chunky, Badou, GRS...(anybody short of Ward, really, all the way up at light heavy :-()

 

Well, true, but Soliman for #9 makes for a pretty good springboard onto the fast-track (especially considering that is slated to be an IBF eliminator for the second-ranked contender spot...and even more so especially if he collects that scalp via KO, given that Soliman has only been stopped once in nearly sixty bouts)