By Norm Frauenheim-
Gennady Golovkin has one title he’d like to keep for as long as possible and another one he’d prefer to shed as soon as he can. Time makes the second of the two problematic. Golovkin is the latest in a long line of fighters who have been called the Most Avoided.
It’s unofficial, yet older than any acronym. It comes with grudging respect and even some popularity among fans looking for a people’s champ. But in terms of a career, it’s best only as a temporary step. For Golovkin, Most Avoided has been an inevitable stage in his move from Kazakhstan to Europe to the United States, from anonymity to Home Box Office.
But now Golovkin is 32.
The clock is ticking on when the middleweight champion gets a big-money shot in a fight that will allow him to relinquish a burdensome mantel inherited from Winky Wright and Antonio Margarito.
His chances at moving on and into a higher income bracket are hard to figure. For now, at least, his career resumes on July 26 at New York’s Madison Square Garden in an interesting bout against Australian Daniel Geale, a former middleweight champ who is among the division’s top five contenders. Geale is competent and clever enough for some to think he could take the fight into the later rounds against the unbeaten Golovkin, whose 26 stoppages in 29 victories give him the best KO ratio among current champions.
Through boxing’s twisted prism, a 12-round decision over the Aussie could turn into a good business decision for Golovkin, despite inevitable criticism that would be there in the immediate aftermath of the unexpected. No stoppage might lessen the fear and finally open the door to an opportunity against Miguel Cotto, or Canelo Alvarez, or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or Andre Ward. Another stoppage might be just another reason to continue avoiding him.
Golovkin says he doesn’t worry about whether that big opportunity will ever be there. What else can he say?
“I don’t think much about this,’’ he said during a conference call Thursday from his training camp in the mountains of Big Bear, Calif. “But I know, I just heard, that when my team is finding fights, it is sometimes hard to get the fight with some fighters. That’s just what I hear. But I don’t think much about this.’’
Still, Golovkin is at an age when other fighters step into their prime for their biggest money in career-defining bouts. A couple of examples: Floyd Mayweather Jr., now 37, was 30 when he scored a split decision over Oscar De La Hoya in front of history’s biggest pay-per-view audience on May 5, 2007. Manny Pacquiao, now 35, was 11 days from turning 30 when he stepped into big money and international celebrity with his stoppage of De La Hoya on Dec. 6, 2008.
Then, there was Wright and Margarito. Wright was 32 when he shed the Most Avoided tag in March 2004 with the first of two straight victories over Shane Mosley and then a stunner over Felix Trinidad. Margarito was 30 when he got out from under the label with an upset of Cotto in July, 2008.
From Mayweather and Pacquiao to Wright and Margarito, the timing is similar. For Golovkin, it’s becoming urgent.
