Is Knockout King Gennady Golovkin Scaring Away the Best Competition?

WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s aggressive style and incredible power have helped make him must-see TV over the past couple of years. Golovkin is a knockout machine. He’s decimated his last 18 opponents within the scheduled distance, and it doesn’t appear his streak will be in danger anytime soon.

He’s just that good.

But let’s be honest with ourselves too. No matter how excited we are to see him bash former world title challenger Martin Murray to the canvas this weekend on HBO’s World Championship Boxing, the truth of the matter is that we’d much rather see him against elite-level competition on Saturday night instead.

That’s not necessarily a knock on Murray. He’s a tough, competent professional with just one loss on his record in 31 prizefights.  

But Murray is an opponent possessing neither the talent nor the star power fight fans crave to see Golovkin share the ring with. He’s simply another middleweight contender brought in almost solely because Golovkin can’t seem to get premier superstars such as Miguel Cotto to accept his challenge.

In fact, Golovkin’s manager, Tom Loeffler, told Newsday’s Greg Logan that Murray was “the best available challenger” he could get to take the fight.

On paper, that’s not so bad. Murray is the No. 4-ranked middleweight contender, per the Transnational Rankings, just three spots behind No. 1-rated Golovkin. But while little separates the men from a divisional-rankings perspective, the two are worlds apart when it comes to overall boxing stardom.

Murray is a modestly popular domestic fighter. He’s one of the UK’s better boxers fighting in the world today, and he’s competed in some big fights before, most notably in his close loss to Sergio Martinez in 2013.

But Golovkin is an international headliner looking to bust his way into boxing’s most exclusive club of megastars. He’s primed to become a pay-per-view box-office attraction but only if he can get current PPV stars to accept fights against him.

The most obvious choice would be Cotto. While the popular Puerto Rican is smallish by 160-pound standards, he is the lineal champion at middleweight, per the Transnational Rankings, as well as the WBC titleholder.

More importantly, Cotto is an established star who could help Golovkin break through to the ranks of true superstardom.

But Cotto seems intent on staying as far away from Golovkin as possible, something not just frustrating to fight fans but to Golovkin himself as well.

Golovkin told Logan he was disappointed in not seeming to be on Cotto’s radar.

“I respect him, but he has the WBC belt and I have the WBC interim. For me, it is very important who is No. 1. I hope to fight Miguel because he is the WBC champion."

Rich Schultz/Getty Images

Continually searching for name-brand opponents, Golovkin even revealed to Logan that his dream come true would be a fight against boxing’s premier talent, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

"It is my dream fight because he is No. 1 pound-for-pound. It's a different style, a little bit different power, maybe the defense. For business, for everybody, for TV, for fans, that's the biggest fight."

But one has a hard time believing Mayweather, a fighter who managed to avoid facing a naturally smaller Manny Pacquiao for over six years, the chief rival to his No. 1 spot in most pound-for-pound rankings during that same time frame, would suddenly rush into the ring with a monster-punching middleweight like Golovkin.

So Golovkin is left fighting the Murrays of the world instead.

Look, if Cotto is intent of avoiding Golovkin altogether, he’ll likely be stripped by the WBC anyway. Golovkin is the division’s current interim champion per the organization, so unifying the division’s alphabet titles is still a possibility.

The middleweight world title is currently vacant after IBF stripped Jermain Taylor of the belt, per ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael, earlier this month. The WBO champion is Andy Lee.

USA TODAY Sports

While Golovkin might be scaring away his most attractive opposition, another conceivable path to glory for him would be cleaning out the 160-pound division before heading up to super middleweight for the likes of Andre Ward, Carl Froch and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Whether after accomplishing such a feat he'd be able to find willing partners among those men remains another story altogether. But all boxing’s knockout king can do is rule over those who will willingly compete in his kingdom.

So sure, Golovkin might be scaring away his best competition, but he’s knocking everybody else out while he does it too. If he can keep doing that, his profile will surely stay on the rise no matter what.

Follow @KelseyMcCarson