Hopkins or GGG

Mercado 1 also

 

What do facts matter to some? Yes Joe won. Hopkins did not like the pace and took the loss hard.

 

The control factor? GGG was in control of the first fight quite clearly.

Even ESPN Mexico felt GGG won. Do I need to post all the cards again?

 

Maybe you're a little new to boxing, but guys don't typically get shots at proven fighters until they themselves have made a bit of a name. Just FYI.

Golovkin had a world title after his 19th fight. Who was Hopkins fighting in his 19th fight? Oh yeah, this world beater: 8-18 Annibal Miranda: http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/4505

To follow up on that momentous victory he then challenged himself with mighty 15-23 James Stokes:
http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/3814

Not content to rest on his laurels, Hopkins then took on the fearsome 16-53 Eric Rhinehart: http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/2067 and totally knocked him out.

... we can go on. Let's be fair about this.

Meanwhile, according to Ward himself:

Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) has ruled out entirely him moving back down to 168 to fight unbeaten Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) after he moves up to super middleweight.

https://www.boxingnews24.com/2017/04/ward-says-wont-fight-golovkin-168/

Not that I can recall.[/quote][/QUOTE]

 

Jesus Christ, you GGG fan boys are a touchy lot.

Fighters with great Olympic pedigree get the big fighters sooner generally. Loma being somewhat of an extreme example, but also Tszyu and Rigo. Golovkin's rise to the top was just slower than these guys and I was generally curious as to why. Not meant as a knock on GGG.

Hopkins had nothing like that kind of amateur background, so you'd expect him to go a slower route.

Yes, that was after the original negotiations had broken down and Ward had gone up to LHW and was fighting Kovalev. But to start with he was keen for a fight with GGG at 168 lbs and you could see for yourself Sanchez saying they did not want that fight at that time. Just read the article I provided a link to. The link was actually in the article you yourself posted.

 

This content is protected

 

GGG didn't and would never fight Ward at 168 , he knew better.

 

Where did you find this?

 

In that case I'll take your comment at face value and let Golovkin answer for me:

https://ringside24.com/en/21053-golovkin-talks-nunez-pavlik-sturm-universum-more

"I have terminated my contract with Universum in January 2010. This decision is definitive and irrevocable. The reason for this decision is that I've always been placed behind Felix Sturm and Sebastian Zbik by Universum. Our demands to fight against Felix Sturm or Sabastian Zbik have been always rejected on absurd grounds. Universum had no real plan or concept for me, they did not even try to bring my career forward. They would rather try to prevent me from winning a title as long as Sturm and Zbik are champions. Furthermore, bouts against well-known and interesting opponents (e.g. Marco Antonio Rubio or Anthony Mundine) were held out in prospect, but nothing happened. This situation was not acceptable. It was time to move forward."

The Ward negotiations are a long saga with he-said-no-you-said twists and turns. Fact is right at the start of the story Golovkin was the one that agreed on the spot to the fight and it was Ward that said he couldn't. Then there was a return negotiation where they realised that the fight had to mature and it was shelved for a while. Then came the Ward offer that Dino linked to, which was like an hour after GGG signed the Lemiuex fight. Of course that's not going to go through. Then there was the offer to Ward to split everything 50-50 both purses and weight. Ward had a **** at that, didn't want any part of it. Fair enough, maybe he thought that he'd be drained at 164, so he rejected the offer. But what's important to note is that he never pursued negotiations at this time. Then a while after his move to 175 came the 168 offer which he rejected again. Why? He'd fought his last fight against Kovalev and he was getting the weight he'd previously insisted on. It's clear that if you have to pick a guy being difficult here, its the MUCH BIGGER Ward that wanted everything his own way. And that's fairly typical for Ward, his negotiation history is a litany of hard-headed stubbornness.

 

Dinodumb**** evidently missed this:

https://www.boxingnews24.com/2017/04/ward-says-wont-fight-golovkin-168/

 

Or Usyk at 200, he knew better.

 

Interesting. That seems to explain a lot.

in 2013 Sanchez said they didn't want the fight until GGG had beaten anyone relevant in the MW division. So that's was a flat out "no" for the foreseeable future.

As for the 2015 offer, I don't see why they had to turn down that immediately just because of Lemieux since it was supposed to be the fight after. But seeing what Sanchez said in 2013 about wanting to clean out the MW division before facing Ward it makes more sense.

I'm not surprised that Ward wasn't interested in going down to 168 lbs four years later. I can see why he thought he was in a position then that he shouldn't have to go back down.