I don't think so at all. Murray looked like he just wanted to survive. I didn't see a single instance where he gave Golovkin trouble like Monroe did. Monroe actually went *****-to-the-wall and tried to push Golovkin back. Monroe actually tried to adjust once he figured out that he couldn't win by boxing him from the outside. That's what makes a good fighter. Murray isn't such, and surviving for as long as possible doesn't equal putting up more of a fight. Murray isn't that good. He's around a C-level fighter.
He didn't get hit on purpose. What he did on purpose, is took of his foot from the gas in order for the fight to go longer - to not disappoint viewers with a too short of a fight - to not discourage potential opponents (like Lemiux) by looking too good.
I thought Monroe was doing well on the night, but rewatching most of his shots were blocked. GGG took it easy for a couple of rounds after going all out for the KO early but he still won those rounds.
We are all forced to speculate on just what GGG is thinking / doing. I think many of the comments here are right to some degree, with my own take being that he seriously goes after anyone who may be a threat. Once he eliminates the threat he may play with the opponent. If I'm right he may go right after Lemiuex hurting him early- and to the point that he no longer is a perceived threat. That wouldn't surprise me at all.
when Monroe picks up some decent wins in the future (I'm sure he'll get a couple of good names to his resume), Golovkin's stock will only rise :good
I'm not sure why this is so hard for people to accept. Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated tweeted this a few days ago... "Spending a few days in Big Bear with @GGGBoxing. I've never met a fighter who goes into a fight as determined as GGG to please the audience." That's GGG. One of his priorities when going into the fight is to please the audience. I know for biased Mayweather fans this may be hard to accept and it seems like it's those fans who refuse to believe GGG allows his opponent success to please the crowd. Golovkin doesn't say, "I promise amazing show for fans," just to blow smoke like most fighters. It's actually important to him to do it, and if that means lowering his level of performance to match that of his opponent then that's what he'll do.
nothing new when talking about an offensive-minded fighter, other than prime Tyson, very few fighters combined slick defense with predator-like offense
Nah! GGG was never hit with a punch he didn't deliberately choose to absorb. Big drama show for fans. :smoke
Although we'very had some good answers here, I'll try to put it another way. GGG was caught by Monroe, however, it didn't look to me like he has no defense or inside game. It looked to me like he let his guard down and paid for it. Whether it was Monroe'so lack of punching power, confidence he had the fight in the bag, or just trying to make it a firefight without thinking, Monroe was scoring well. I compare it a bit to the mentality in sparring. Sometimes when I was sparring someone I didn't percieve as danderous, the opponent would decide to give it his all and he would surprise me and land some nice leather on me, however, after realizing I was being lazy I would sort of wake up and rise to the level I needed to be in order to not get smacked around the ring. This wouldn't really happen to me when I was sparring big punches or really good fighters, just against certain people that I would get a little too comfortable with.
lemiux is supossed to be a big puncher. it will be nice if ggg takes some shots on purpose for the fans