Who was the more dominant fighter, Beterbiev or Golovkin?

Golovkin beat Canelo two times.

 

That's interesting, I remember live thinking Canelo swept the first 8 rounds and Golvokin took the last 4. It reminded me a bit of Ward v Froch in that the older less refined boxer was the one who finishes stronger pushing the pace.

Might rewatch it, add it to my list with Fury v Usyk and Beterbiev v Bivol.

 

Beterbiev.

 

GGG was awful in that third fight.

 

Golovkin in my opinion. It is generally accepted that he should have at least one win over Canelo, and his body of work is much greater than Beterbiev's.

Beterbiev was horribly mismanaged for the first half of career. The Gvozdyk fight was his first challenging fight and Bivol is his second big fight (Smith is fun to watch but not at the level of a Jacobs or Derevyanchenko).

That's not enough to put him ahead of Golovkin for now. Golovkin was also the consensus #1 at MW for much longer (admittedly a poor MW division for a while) which makes him more dominant, per the thread title. I am not addressing the question of who is better, that's for another thread.

 

Beterbiev by the slightest of margins, for which he has the judges who robbed GGG of a victory over Canelo to thank for.

 

Golovkin doesn't have any official top wins. No, Jacobs and Sergiy are not top drawer fighters. Canelo is top shelf, but on the borderline. Dude made a career out of gifts against ****ing B listers like Trout and Lara. I do think Golovkin outboxed Canelo wide and clean. Corruption cheated him out of his legacy. But I do not want to say that Canelo was this legendary great fighter. More like a very good fighter on the borderline of great.

Gvozdyk and Bivol are top shelf fighters. Guys who were very slightly below Kovalev level at their respective peaks. Beterbiev's demolition job on Gvozdyk is by far the best performance either man ever had.

 

Beterbiev. He became undisputed and Bivol and Gvozdyk are better wins than anything on GGG's resume IMO.

 

Its close, if you give GGG the canelo fight and take the bivol fight from Beterviev since they were both controversial its clear for GGG if you go with who should have one then it is very close. Seems like Beterviev aged a lot better though.

 

Trout and Lara gave Canelo close fights. Bivols best win is a smaller canelo.

 

“Golovkin doesn't have any official top wins.”

Yes tinman, aka, Josef of Arimathea, that seems to be accurate.

Beterbiev on the other hand has won three separate world titles in three separate fights at Light Heavyweight, each with a KO victory prior to this Bivol points victory, which of course he won by a points decision, becoming undisputed at the Light Heavyweight division.

 

The GGG-canelo II was much much much better than bivol Vs beterbiev. The former fight, I felt, was of much purer quality in a technical sense. And their styles produced an absolute masterclass of boxing purity not witnessed for years.

I rate GGG's boxing skills higher than AB's tbh, yet I would actually say AB is more accomplished. Bivol & Gvodzick are 2 elite wins (+ Smith, Browne, Yarde whom are 2 rungs below elite). GGG only really has Canelo on that level (Jacobs and Dchenko very close but not quite there). AB don't fight no 147-154 lbers brought up in weight... On the flip side, GGG doesn't rehydrate to a weight class above (like AB does - easily a cruiser really?).

The bivol win was controversial because people didn't see that AB's punches were breaking through Bivol's guard and landing: a flurry of 4-5 punch combo would break through and land 1-3 punches.

AB more dominant a fighter & resume IMO.

 

Bivol is slightly better than Cotto. The way I rank fighters is that if you are better than Cotto was p4p then you are an elite fighter. Then there are sub categories of elite. Let me add some perspective.

B+ fighters include Cotto, Gary Russell Jr. Errol Spence, Canelo, Kessler.

A- fighters include Briedis, Gvozdyk, Bivol, Tito Trinidad, Estrada.

A fighters include Kovalev, Beterbiev, Ward, Calzaghe, Crawford.

A+ fighters include Mayweather, Pacquiao, Usyk.