Gennady “GGG” Golovkin – Andre Ward: The Boxing Public DEMANDS IT

By Roy Bennett

There’s a monster in the attic.

But this is no childhood nightmare conjured up in the depths of a feverish and fitful sleep. This nightmare is real.

But no one with a big name reputation to protect wants to climb the step ladder into that dark space and risk getting mauled.

So, for the most part, they keep sending the unknown guys up instead. The club fighters. The journeymen. The young guns who have ambition above and beyond their abilities but little else.

Willie Monroe, JR. has volunteered to climb the step ladder next. It may very well prove to be a brave but futile act. Coming so soon after the shadowy, bruised and bloodied visage of Martin Murray, head bowed, passed beyond the crime scene tape.

They’re considered to be expendable, see. Predictably they get mauled. And there are no bleeding hearts lamenting their pain. The big name guys? The tough guys that we’re supposed to look up to? They just continue to look the other way.

The muscular and foreboding presence of Gennady Golovkin has sent shockwaves rumbling through the middleweight ranks.

He has put the opposition on high alert with displays of power punching prowess not seen since the days of Thomas Hearns, Nigel Benn, and Julian Jackson. The man also known to boxing fans as GGG has stopped or knocked out twenty nine of his thirty two opponents inside the scheduled distance. All thirty two were thoroughly beaten.

Fight fans are calling for the top names at 160lbs to do the right thing. Step up to the plate and face the consensus most feared fighter in the sport….

GGG shot a right hand over his Japanese opponent’s lead left as he backed him into the ropes. The punch landed flush and Nobuhiro Ishida collapsed unconscious under the bottom rope. The referee could have counted to a hundred and the sleeping fighter still wouldn’t have moved.

….But he’s not just a puncher.

To date he has demonstrated a skilled, and workmanlike style of dismantling his opponents in the tradition of the finest ring mechanics. Patient, and accurate, with the full arsenal of punches at his disposal, he has superb balance, economical footwork, and goes to the body exceptionally well.

These attributes were honed in the amateurs where Golovkin, representing his home country of Kazahkstan, won numerous top honors in international competition. Chief among his achievements are a silver medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and a gold medal in the 2003 world championships in Bangkok.

His final amateur mark was an incredible 345-5.

Training under Abel Sanchez out of the Summit Gym in Big Bear, California, a full time live in facility for professional boxers, Golovkin is able to focus and completely dedicate himself to his trade one hundred percent. While scouting Los Angeles for a gym in which to base himself during his US campaign, the setting and environment of the gym immediately resonated with him. He recalls, “I saw the mountains and the trees; I thought this is good. This is best for me. After one week training I feel this is seriously my place,” said Golovkin. “I like it. It’s like my second home.”

And he has the professional attitude to go along with his Kazhak style discipline. He loves to train. Wants to stay active. By today’s standards where most of the top performers fight only once or twice per year Golovkin is one of the most active champions out there.

He’s scheduled to fight four times in 2015. He wants the big fights against name opponents. Miguel Cotto, Danny Jacobs, Andy Lee, Peter Quillin, and to a lesser extent, the winner of the
Hassan N’Dam v David Lemieux bout (for the vacant IBF title) are all on his radar.

They’ve all got a target on their chests now. Locked in the sights of a fighter who wants to challenge himself by facing the best available competition.

However, promotional shenanigans may scupper some of those plans and force Golovkin to move up to 168 lbs where Andre Ward rules the roost and is considered to be the best boxer at the weight, and one of the best in the world.

But the resurrection of the man known as SOG (“Son of God”) is not yet complete. Ward’s Promotional and contractual problems have finally been ironed out due to the sudden passing of his original promoter Dan Goosen and, subsequently, the entry of music mogul Jay Z’s Roc Nation onto boxing’s promotional landscape. Also, in the interim, an injury to his right shoulder has been operated on and successfully rehabilitated.

Seemingly the way is now clear for the Oakland, California native to resume his boxing career. While Andre Ward’s credentials as one of the best fighters in the sport are undeniable he has only fought twice since beating Carl Froch in the final of the Showtime Super Six boxing tournament in 2011.

You read that right. Ward has only fought two times in almost three and a half years, an impressive stoppage victory over Chad Dawson and a lackluster twelve round points decision win over Edwin Rodriguez.

In the meantime Golovkin is staying busy by fighting regularly. Sharpening his tools. Getting better each time out. As Ward continues to sit on the shelf several questions beg to be asked. Can he once again rise to the fistic heights he attained when he won the Super Six tournament in 2011? Can he beat Gennady Golovkin?

Will he eventually move up to Light Heavyweight to pursue big fights with Sergey Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson? Ward himself has expressed a desire to face Golovkin at some point down the road and Abel Sanchez has said he’ll gladly accept the challenge after his star pupil has unified all the titles at middleweight.

But political and business maneuvering between various promotional entities, and boxing’s alphabet governing bodies, may conspire to keep the big names at middleweight away from GGG’s wrecking ball fists.

It would appear Andre Ward and Gennady Golovkin are on a collision course. It’s a fight many fans are already calling for.

It is inevitable they will clash at some point. One day Andre Ward will stand at the bottom of the step ladder and look up at the attic into that dark space. Nobody knows what will be going through his mind when he begins the climb.

The monster will be waiting.