GGG calls Canelo-Khan 'not good for boxing,' says Khan will get KO'd
Gennady Golovkin was forced to wait until this fall for a shot at Canelo Alvarez, and isn't happy about Canelo's next fight with Amir Khan.
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Gennady "GGG" Golovkin is one of boxing's fastest rising stars, despite being dodged by most of the middleweight division for the past four years.
Golovkin is the mandatory WBC title challenger for Canelo Alvarez, but after negotiations in December, the fight was pushed until later in 2016, with both fighting a bout in the spring against other opponents.
Canelo made big news when he announced he would be facing Amir Khan on May 7, with Khan moving up from welterweight to face Alvarez at the 155-pound catchweight. GGG will face his mandatory IBF challenger in Dominic Wade on April 23 in Los Angeles, and Golovkin had some criticism of Canelo's intent when asked about Canelo-Khan, calling it "a business plan" and said it was bad for boxing.
“[Canelo-Khan] is not good for boxing," Golovkin said to the Los Angeles Times. "Amir Khan, he’s not bad … [Canelo] will knock the hell out of him. This is true. … There’s a big difference in size. … I need a chance. Give me the chance.”
Golovkin feels the same way many do about Khan trying to step up in weight class to face Alvarez. Despite Khan's technical skill, few think he will have the power to bother the much bigger Canelo.
We saw in the Cotto fight that when Canelo is not bothered by an opponents power punches, he will walk through those and put a lop-sided beating on an otherwise talented opponent. Golovkin seems to expect this to be much worse than the Cotto fight, with Khan ending the fight on the canvas.
As for the potential fall matchup between Canelo, Golovkin restated his insistence on the title fight taking place at 160 pounds, not the 155-pound catchweight that Alvarez and previous champion Miguel Cotto have been fighting at.
"Absolutely [the fight will happen] at 160, because he is the middleweight champion. He is not the junior middleweight champion. Middleweight champion is 160," said Golovkin to BoxingScene.com.
There had been reports that Golovkin had cooled on his stance of not fighting at 155 in order to make a fight with Canelo happen, but it appears as though he's back to being firm on making the middleweight title fight happen at, well, the middleweight limit.
