The argument against him is that he only fought a few top 5 ranked MW's. And they were all razor thin and/or controversial... ATG is a big stretch in my opinion. But he had sustained success and is a great fighter so HOF level sounds about right. No way he surpasses the feats of a Wonjongkam or anything like that.
Geale and Lemieux were top 5, were those close fights? He demolished a who's who of the Ring top 10 during that time. Only Canelo,Jacobs and Derevyanchenko ever made it 12 rounds with him.
Golovkin's legacy is tarnished by getting his biggest wins and accomplishments taken away from him by partial judges and boxing politics. The issue of him just being too good in his prime that he was avoided like the plague by the big names (some even admitted that freely) and just not being from one of the big boxing countries (America, Mexico, UK). The WBC even went out of their way in various ways to make sure he couldn't get his hands on the full WBC title from 2014 until deep into 2016, so they could have the more marketable Maravilla, Cotto and of course Alvarez have 6 different fights until he finally got his shot, to be robbed of the win after. It's the problem of being a standout boxer, without having a topclass promotion behind you, while other names in the division do. He eventually got the bigger fights and big promotion, but only when he was already on the slide, and then of course had the judges against him in the 2 biggest ones. Does he deserve to have a loss on his record? Yes, against Derevyanchenko, but not against Alvarez. Does he deserve to have a draw on his record? Maybe, but then it's the second fight against Alvarez, not the first. Which ranked fighters did he beat, despite being avoided like the plague for most of his career? Unofficially (12): Alvarez (probably twice #1), Jacobs (#2), Brook (#2 WW) , Wade (#10) , Lemieux (#5), Murray (#9) who should have been the #1 and Ring champion at the time, Rubio (#8), Geale (#3), Stevens (#7), Ishida (#8), Proksa (#9). Officially (11): Derevyanchenko (#7), Jacobs (#2), Brook (#2 WW) , Wade (#10) , Lemieux (#5), Murray (#9) who should have been the #1 and Ring champion at the time, Rubio (#8), Geale (#3), Stevens (#7), Ishida (#8), Proksa (#9). If boxing was fair, Golovkin would have been the unified WBC/WBA, Ring and Lineal champion from early 2015 until late 2019, adding the IBF belt later in 2015, being succeeded by Derevyanchenko in a close fight. Instead history shows once again how the official results and politics trump what actually happened in and outside the ring, and tarnished his legacy.
You are right. Totally forgot about Geale. He deserved that ranking too. Disagree on a "who's who" of top 10 though. Wade wasnt. Ishida, Rosado, Stevens, etc. Rubio was Ring #9 I do recall. But thats pretty darn weak to dig those guys up if they are the strength of an argument for someone being called an ATG. Combined 5-0 on those guys barely surpasses 1-0 against Callum Smith, no joke.
Yeah i believe it, and Geale beat Sturm in a unification, Macklin was robbed against Sturm, and Murray had a draw with Sturm in Germany. Also, both Murray and Macklin gave Martinez all he could handle.
Proksa, Macklin,Stevens,Geale, Rubio,Murray,Lemieux Brook #1 at welter, Jacobs And Canelo. Thats 9 ring top tens at middleweight and the #1 welterweight. I would say thats a who's who, and Martinez,Cotto,Quillin, Sturm and Chavez jr are guys that GGG would have loved to have fought.
Yep - Hardly a murderers row. Outside the close-run bout with Jacobs, Geale is probably Golovkin's best win, and that's on the strength of Geale having at least beat a couple of other Ring-rated opponents in his time. That said, these wins were years before he met Golovkin, by which time Geale was at the end of the road. (You could argue for Derevyanchenko being the next-best win, but that would be based on a couple of good looking losing efforts. Simply put, he has lost every time he has stepped up.) All the other guys mentioned barely, if ever, faced and beat other rated opposition. Lemieux, in his still active and entire career, has faced 3 Ring-Rated opponents and gone 1-2. He'd faced only one ranked guy, in N'Dam N'Jikam, before Golovkin. His last was a loss to Saunders, almost 4 years ago.
Those were fairly washed up version of Sturm and Martinez (who stopped Macklin), though. Small, old Cotto levelled Geale, which shows his level.
Top 5 in a very weak division. Saunders outclassed Lemieux and Cotto levelled Geale. That was their level.
Great post and most accurate I've seen in here..easy to slate ggg but most of his wins were top 10 ranked fighters...it's not his fault the division wasn't amazingly strong..he did the business... incidentally I gave ggg the dervyanchenko fight...the knock down being the decider..great fight though
The man's resume is absolutely garbage, his legacy is directly tied to what Canelo does which is laughable. He wasted his career under K2 promotions then lost his series vs Canelo in which he was favored in and has done nothing since. Besides being a stepping stone for Canelo, I think GGG will best be remembered as having the 2nd most world MW title defenses behind Bernard Hopkins.
Lets be honest here guys, Golovkin probably had the talent to be great but he had terrible management. As much as HBO hyped him he simply never took any risks. I don't know if it was him or his handlers managing his career, but I recall Golovkin claiming multiple times he would fight anyone between 154 and 168, so he may have wanted to carve out a better legacy, but his handlers probably had other plans because every single time a legitimate threat called his bluff they either ignored it, or flat out refused. Even Golovkin's title defense record is a fabrication because he wasn't the WBA Super Champion. Fighters avoiding him like the plague is also a farce. There were a couple fighters who instead of fighting Golovkin opted to fight bigger names in more lucrative fights. Perhaps the only fighter who truly ducked him was Sturm who imo was always a B level fighter at very best, meaning at the height of his peak he was simply a B level boxers, anything outside of that he was C. Golovkin's career is nothing extraordinary for a champion. Has about 9 defenses against mostly no hopers, his best win is Jacobs, and gave a great JrMW his toughest fights.
