He's similar in a ways to Wlad Klitschko imo. He reigned over a long period of time, but he never had a really dangerous opponent.
I know he's not winning but would love to have seen him fight Hagler! Golovkin with his power against the Hagler s Chin could make for a great brawl.
Similar in some ways, yes, in the sense you mention. But there are some key differences in terms of the strength of their respective 'reigns'. Golovkin's tenure is artificially inflated and I don't think he was ever considered the lineal Middleweight Champion. Whereas, Wlad beat a legit titlist and held legit straps from start to finish (and would a few years after beating Byrd achieve lineal status).
I reckon there's a fair few who envisage this being a battle of the chins, but I'm not sure this would end up being a brawl. I can, however, see it being a consummate boxing lesson provided by Hagler to Golovkin.
Top 20. Borderline top 10 arguably. Its not his fault he was avoided. Far as i am concerned, the first Canelo fight should be regarded as a win on his resume.
H2H, i think my issue is his reluctance to go for the finish against quality opponents. Even though i believed he was robbed in Canelo 1, i feel like his somewhat cautious Soviet/Eastern European style prevented him from getting a finish. He had Canelo badly buzzed against the ropes and backed off. A guy like Hagler or Monzon would have badly battered Canelo in the same scenario. H2H, i have a hard time picking him over Monzon or Hagler or SRR because even though he has the tools to beat them, i feel that he would be far too cautious vs such high caliber guys. I have no idea how he would do vs Greb due to lack of footage. Among the post Hagler middleweights, the only guys i would favour over him H2H would be RJJ, Toney and maybe Hopkins. So H2H, i do rank him highly. But i also think that if he faced super elite guys like Hagler, Monzon, Toney, SRR, RJJ etc., he would show far too much respect for those guys and lose a competitive decision to them.
There's been alot of great Middleweights. Monzon Hopkins Greb Robinson Hopkins Ketchel Walker Tiger Fitzsimmons Steele Cerdan LaMotta Ryan Zale etc. I wouldn't have Golovkin in the top 10 despite his number of title defences he's more rated along the likes of other long reigning champions who weren't ATG's like Michalczewski, Hill, etc. For me personally Golovkin didn't have enough stand out performances against upper echelon opponents and his opposition for the most part is quite forgettable.
The issue with Fitzimmons, Greb and Ketchel is that it is impossible to judge them h2h due to the lack of film or the lack of quality film available.
Fair but if you're talking strictly about H2H then i don't think Golovkin even rates in the top 10 in that regard. James Toney RJJ Michael Nunn Marvin Hagler Carlos Monzon Bernard Hopkins Mike McCallum Sugar Ray Robinson Charley Burley Gerald McClellan D*ck Tiger Sumbu Kalambay Gene Fulmer etc. There's alot of very strong H2H fighters at Middleweight.