As fight fans may have read or heard, former long reigning middleweight king Gennady Golovkin has a new role, an important one. GGG is the brand new president of the Kazakhstan Olympic Committee, the 41 year old officially accepting the job yesterday. With the taking of this important and time consuming position, Golovkin may have given us all the best indication yet that his fighting days are done.
GGG has not fought since September of 2022, this in his final fight against Canelo Alvarez, with Golovkin dropping a unanimous decision in what was a pretty dull fight. You have to go back to April of 2022 to find Golovkin’s last win, this his ninth round stoppage victory over Ryota Murata. Exiting the ring (?) with a 42-2-1(37) ledger, GGG is a lock for the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible, but might Golovkin box again? It doesn’t appear to be too likely, what with the new job and the fact that GGG will turn 42 in April.
If he has fought his last fight, where does Golovkin deserve to be ranked all time? Tough question. For on paper, GGG lost two of his three biggest fights, these the massive fights with Canelo. However, most fans think GGG won the first fight that was scored a draw, while plenty of us feel Triple-G won the second fight with Canelo but was not given a fair shake by the judges.
Golovkin did of course reign as a champion for a very long time – from August of 2010 when the then 28 year old picked up a version of the WBA middleweight title, to September of 2018, when Golovkin lost the rematch with Canelo. GGG regained a couple of belts in October of 2019, this with a win over Sergiy Derevyanchenko. In total, GGG engaged in a hugely impressive 26 world title fights, with him losing just two of them.
And of course, GGG had an iron chin, with him never once looking even close to being stopped in a fight. Add it all up, and Golovkin is worthy of a place in anyone’s top 10 greatest ever middleweights list, surely. Golovkin was truly frightening when he was at his best, this when he was emerging as a star. GGG was also avoided by the top names at this time. It was only when he had turned 35 that Golovkin got his first super fight, this the first encounter with Canelo.
One could make the argument that, the final fight with Canelo aside, GGG was never truly beaten in any fight. But the fact that Golovkin’s biggest wins in terms of victories over a big name perhaps came against David Lemieux, Kell Brook, Danny Jacobs, Derevyanchenko and Murata, hurts his overall greatness. In the opinion of some people, at least.
But GGG was great, he will go down as a great, and if he has boxed his last we will miss him.
