Golovkin is 33, was he mismanged? why was he unheard of 7 yrs ago?

atsch

 

Very interesting. Could be true. If you think about it, from a marketing perspective I bet fighters from Kazakstan aren't that profitable. Not a nation with a lot of money and too much boxing history. Perhaps his German handlers didn't think he was a cross over star?

Whats crazy to think about is that guys like Sergio Martinez, and GGG who didn't hit the limelight til later, almost went completely undiscovered... Makes you think about how many potential great fighters have slipped between the cracks over the years (due to promotional/marketing/management issues alone, we all know there are fighters who get involved in crime/drugs and disappear).

 

Kovalev was pretty close to never being discovered as well. It's that Duva took a gamble with him, otherwise we would probably still have had guys like Cloud, Cleverly, Campillo, Shumenov and a 50 year old B-Hop holding and competing for some of the belts until they got racked up for Beterbiev and co.

 

That's a good point and it is down to the business model of boxing.

There is a lot of smoke and mirrors in boxing; lesser fighters, but with some type of marketability factor can have a carefully constructed "successful" career where as better fighters but with less marketability have to plug away for years to get their break as they are seen as high risk/low reward.

Us hardcore fans not demanding more from the promoters and bigging up PPV numbers and KO power over technique and skills doesnt help, either.

 

And at the higher steps we even see that the fans are celebrating that, wich is another problem Golovkin faces at the moment.
He is the bigger star, so he has the right to screw Golovkin over. Look who he faced in the past so he doesn't have to face him now, let him wait another (and another, and another) year.

 

It's a problem in boxing in general. A lot of the promotion companies are based in certain countries and keep their business there. GBP and Top Rank aren't going to promote a fight in Germany, and they aren't going to reach out to fighters internationally. However US promotion companies hold most of the cards because they make and pay the most money. Basically if you fight outside the US you have to more than prove yourself in your home turf, find a way to fight in the US, and beg for a promotion company to pick you up, and never fight in your hometown again. I'm glad GGG is getting the exposure and the pay days he deserves.

 

-Adnan Catic
-German

You only get to choose 1, m8:rofl

 

No, it was Felix Sturm.
Ahmet Oner came out and said that Sturm paid the WBA to be elevated to Super Champion so he wouldn't have to fight Golovkin.

Oner briefly worked with Sturm after Sturm left Universum.
There was an article about it on the scene a few years ago

 

Golovkin was under Universum. They promised him good money and to make him A world champion. Sturm was also at Universum at the time and there Nr 1 star with the german tv ratings. They and Sturm so golovkin in training and said **** it i dont want to fight this guy. There is also A rumour that Sturm included a clause in his contract that he had not to fight GGG. So ggg got **** fight and should not become mandatory. Then GGG met these Herrmann twins( his managers and lawyers also from kazakstan) they went to court and asked k2 for help. K2 saw and New already about GGG Talent and got him out of the contract and brought him to the states. Between Sturm tried every possible way to avoid him. He paid special fees to the WBA to fight 5 times his voluntary and when finally he had to fight GGG Sturm tryed to unify against geale ( he said he would drop the WBA belt after that) but thanks god he lost. There is A great Interview with Ahmet öner on the topic. Its somewhere on youtube. Its 4 or 5 years old. There he said that everyone New GGG would **** Sturm.sturm tryed everything possible to avoid him. Whats really interesting is the öner said about GGG, he is the real deal. This guy is like Marvin hagler, on that level and he will walk through everyone in his path and that he hopes that GGG beats the **** out of sturm

 

He had promotional issues, but unlike Ward, he kept active.

 

What ave did he go pro cos he had a massive Am career

 

I often reflect on this ^. As has been mentioned Kovalev came very close to hanging them up following the Simakov tragedy after a few years fighting minor venues on the US circuit without recognition. It's likely, even probable, that the amount of talent that slips between the cracks, never gets exposure or simply chooses a more reliable (if less spectacular) means of earning a living outweighs that in the pro ranks. For every fighter that 'makes it' there could easily be half a dozen of equal skill who fall by the wayside for reasons unrelated to their talent.

And yeah - GGG. The story has been told already, but Universum, who are now thankfully defunct after ruining more than one career (and who were also, reportedly not averse to using violence to achieve their ends - Boytsov's manager was hospitalised following an attack with a metal bar) - basically stalled Golovkins career between 2006 and 2010. They matched him fairly well to start with, but basically put his career on hold when it became apparent that he was a threat to #1 moneyspinner Sturm.

After struggling to get major fights for a year or two GGG broke from the promotion in Jan 2010, but was promptly slapped with an injunction which prevented him from fighting in either Germany or the U.S (hence the Ouma fight being in Panama) until out of court agreement was reached in mid 2011.

http://www.boxnews.com.ua/en/interv...ovkin-Talks-Nunez-Pavlik-Sturm-Universum-More

Of course, GGGs pre-K2 career wasn't an entire waste, he had shown himself to be a legitimate contender, but beating Sturm in 2009/10 would have established him on the global scene 3 or 4 years earlier (and would also probably be considered a bigger win than any on his current resume).