Boxing

[danthepoetman]

Anyone saw the Ganady Golovkin-Matthew Macklin fight? Golovkin literally dismantled Macklin, a guy who gave the linear, "real" middleweight champion of the world, Sergio Martinez, a lot of trouble for 11 rounds, and who probably beat Felix Sturm despite not being given the decision. 14th ko in a row for Golovkin, 8th for a belt! Is Golovkin the most dominant middleweight in the world right now? Who would win a Martinez-Golovkin fight? Is Golovkin the next great middleweight champion to come, like Hopkins was, Hagler before, Monzon before? Will we see a 6 or 7 year reign?
Any comments?

What about the upcomming Floyd Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez fight? Some comments on this one?

[danthepoetman]

Boxing nowadays... I can hear the wind...

[broncofan]

I just watched Golovkin fight (on youtube) after reading your post. I haven't followed boxing closely in more than five years. He's an incredibly accurate puncher. Yes, he hits hard, but his shots land so cleanly that fighters don't know what to do. He has good head movement as well and slips punches as he cuts off the ring. His left hook is similar to what you see from a lot of eastern European fighters where he doesn't fully commit to it all the time but when he does it's tremendously powerful.

He'll be a very hard guy to beat.

[danthepoetman]

Thanks for your answer, Broncofan. In all probability, we'll be the only two to talk about this.
Yes, Golovkin was impressive. And the most surprising aspect of it, is that Macklin is no chump. He's proven a difficult opponent at the top of the division.
You're right in your analysis, and I would ask one more thing to it: rarely do you see a fighter with such short powerful punches. He sometimes throws from 12 to 18 inches from target with devastating results. I haven't been impressed this much in a long time with a fighter.
I feel very priviledged to have seen in my time 3 of the greatest reigns in middleweight history. Carlos Monzon, first, in the 70's; Marvin Hagler, from 79, I think, to 87; and Bernard Hopkins, for almost a decade too, more recently. I hope we see the peaking of another great one in Golovkin!

[broncofan]

I've seen about five or six fights of his now. He is definitely for real. In his fight with Gabe Rosado he landed over 2 and a half times as many punches as Rosado, which combined with his greater punching power spelled doom. I also saw his fight with Proksa, where he beat a slick southpaw after dropping him four or so times.

My only concern is the Kassim Ouma fight. I saw it and though I know that Gennady had some issues before the fight I think there's a stylistic concern as well. Ouma has a rock solid chin and he is a volume puncher. That combination has made him tough for a lot of fighters. Ouma was throwing pitty-pat punches and Golovkin was having trouble getting set to throw his shots because Ouma was upsetting his rhythm. It sort of reminded me of the difficulties Kostya Tszyu had in getting a rhythm against the relatively soft-punching Oktay Urkal. When an opponent doesn't put much power into his punches, and you tend to throw for accuracy, it makes it tough to get going.

The only good thing about that is that Ouma has a fairly unique style (btw I am aware that he destroyed Ouma by the end of the fight). Golovkin is good at tracking down movers, and good at out-landing punchers...but that volume punching style seemed to give him a bit of trouble. Fortunately, from what I've seen that is not how Sergio Martinez fights. He is more of a fleet-footed southpaw boxer with fast hands.

[danthepoetman]

I have missed the Golovkin-Ouma fight. Ouma, although not quite in the absolute top echelon, is still an outstanding fighter; you're right, he has a great chin and is absolutely relentless. That's one of the main quality of a great champion: to be able to adapt to any style. Rare are the fighters who get to be able to fight all comers at a given weight; they almost all eventually succumb to one style or another. And punchers like Golovkin often tend to rely a little too much on power and at some point, stop progressing. But Golovkin seems like the real thing. And Martinez has said yesterday or the day before, in an interview, that he was ready to fight him (Dan Rafael's blog, I think, reported it). This should make one of the best middleweight confrontation in a long time. Martinez-Paul Williams was a real good match-up, Jermaine Taylor-Kelly Pavlik before too, Hopkins-Taylor, but I don't think we had such a good one since Hopkins-Trinidad, almost 15 years ago.
Nice review on Golovkin, Broncofan!

[danthepoetman]

This, fresh out from ESPN:
On Monday, former heavyweight titlist David Haye posted a video on Instagram in which he signed a piece of paper -- purportedly a contract to fight fellow brash British contender Tyson Fury -- and said, "We've re-jigged the contract so he's nice and happy. All done."
The 32-year-old Haye (26-2, 24 KOs) will be at a vast size disadvantage. The former cruiserweight champion is 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, although he is very heavy-handed. Fury (21-0, 15 KOs), 25, is 6-9 and 254 pounds, although not known as that big of a hitter.
Haye won a version of the heavyweight title in 2009 by outpointing 7-footer Nikolai Valuev in Germany and went on to make two defenses, against former titleholder John Ruiz and countryman Audley Harrison. But then Haye faced champion Wladimir Klitschko in a July 2011 unification fight and was routed in an uncompetitive decision loss, which Haye blamed on an injured pinkie toe.
Haye has fought just once since the Klitschko fight, a fifth-round knockout of British countryman Dereck Chisora last July.
Fury, who won a decision against former world title challenger Chisora in 2011, made his American debut in his last fight. He stopped Philadelphia's Steve Cunningham, a former cruiserweight titlist, in the seventh round in New York on April 20, although Cunningham dropped Fury in the second round and nearly knocked him out.













Piece of advice from the Poetman: don't be fooled by the size of Fury. Bet on Haye for this one! It should be relatively easy money, especially if some are fooled and odds turn to be in Fury's favour...

[dderek123]

Speaking of Tyson Fury ...

[danthepoetman]

That's a great one, Derek! He practically knocked himself out with an uppercut!

That's pretty much the idea I have of the guy: very clumsy. He's a flat footed, slow pludder with huge size and heavy, although not powerful punches. Probably very strong too, obviously. But Haye, despite his size, probably punches harder; he's also much faster, can move around the ring for 12 rounds easily, and is great at taking angles on his opponents. My hunch is, Haye will be able to get in and out without being touched too much by the bigger guy. Fury will hunt and pursue, but only to be tagged over and over again.

Fury's team are putting him too fast against a fighter that is too good. Fury is only 23 or 24: he has a lot of time to still learn. But a humiliating defeat could break his carreer. I think they're compromising him too fast...

[dderek123]

That's a great one, Derek! He practically knocked himself out with an uppercut!

That's pretty much the idea I have of the guy: very clumsy. He's a flat footed, slow pludder with huge size and heavy, although not powerful punches. Probably very strong too, obviously. But Haye, despite his size, probably punches harder; he's also much faster, can move around the ring for 12 rounds easily, and is great at taking angles on his opponents. My hunch is, Haye will be able to get in and out without being touched too much by the bigger guy. Fury will hunt and pursue, but only to be tagged over and over again.

Fury's team are putting him too fast against a fighter that is too good. Fury is only 23 or 24: he has a lot of time to still learn. But a humiliating defeat could break his carreer. I think they're compromising him too fast...

Yeah I agree with you about Fury being pushed too quickly. Maybe his coaches and manager don't have much confidence in him. He should probably change up his management and camp then.

Dan what do you think of the Cotto training with Freddie Roach? I think it's a great move for him. I found he relied on his chin and heart a bit too much. Polishing up his fundamentals and gameplanning around his new abilities could turn him into a real scary fighter.