The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of April 24
Gennady Golovkin added Dominic Wade's name to his now 22-fight-long knockout streak with a predictable second-round blowout on Saturday night in California. The power-punching Kazakh might not have lineal recognition (so much as that matters anymore), but he's clearly the division's best fighter.
We take a look at what happens next, since it seems the exodus of opponents willing to face Golovkin is once again gaining steam.
Seriously, can we get this guy a big fight? Will one of you guys step up to the plate?
Next, we take a look at Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez's impressive whipping of a very game challenger in McWilliams Arroyo on the GGG-Wade undercard.
Arroyo fought as good a fight as possible and was still thoroughly dominated.
Can anyone challenge Chocolatito?
Finally, we move on to action coming this weekend with looks at Badou Jack's 168-pound title defense against Lucian Bute, James DeGale's strange opponent choice and Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto II's impending doom.
These are your hottest boxing storylines for the week!
Can We Get GGG a Big Fight?
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Golovkin knocked down the woefully overmatched Wade three times and stopped him in the second round of a bout that was every bit as one-sided as everyone feared when it was announced. It was the perfect example of why levels exist in boxing, but it was a fight GGG and team hardly deserve to be criticized about.
You want to blame someone?
Take aim at the IBF which ranked Wade as its mandatory challenger (without whom Golovkin would've been stripped of his title) despite showing very little to indicate he was ready for that type of challenge.
Moving on, the question after the fight predictably fell into one of two boxes.
There was the "when will GGG fight someone" crowd and the "when will someone have the guts to face GGG" crowd. The former was critical of the Kazakh, who scored his 22nd straight knockout, for not facing a true challenge yet, while the latter (more reasonably) acknowledged he can't fight people who refuse to fight him.
Golovkin has been chasing down big names for the past several years. Sergio Martinez didn't want any, ditto for Miguel Cotto, and now Canelo Alvarez and team have begun the steady walk back of their desire to even share the same room with GGG in the near future.
Let's be real, people. The guy can't force people to fight him. Maybe it's time to stop dumping on GGG and start turning up the heat on the many champions and high-profile fighters around him who don't have the requisite you know what to get in there.
GGG has been clear about his desire to collect all middleweight belts (his 16 defenses of the WBA title are second all time behind Bernard Hopkins record of 20 defenses) and should add full recognition from the WBC if the winner of Canelo-Amir Khan refuses to fight him next.
Who does he fights next?
If not Canelo, then hopefully Billy Joe Saunders for the WBO belt.
If not him then who knows, which just plain sucks.
Can Anyone Challenge Chocolatito?
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It sure doesn't look like anyone can challenge Gonzalez, the WBC flyweight champion and pound-for-pound best fighter on the planet, according to Bleacher Report, ESPN and the Ring magazine.
Chocolatito successfully defended his 112-pound championship for a fourth time with a virtuoso shutout against the extremely tough and durable Arroyo on Saturday night in Inglewood as the co-feature for GGG's latest knockout.
Before we sing the Gonzalez praises, it's worth giving some serious credit to Arroyo. The Puerto Rican contender came to fight and put in about as good a performance as anyone in the flyweight division could hope for against the division's standard bearer.
He punched with him, fought back for all 12 rounds showing no fear and landed some serious leather. His prize? Two combined won rounds on the three official scorecards and a near-shutout loss.
Arroyo was good, but Gonzalez was great.
He didn't take a step backward the entire fight and attacked with vicious combinations, mixing his levels and walking straight through the incoming return fire from an opponent known for punching power.
Gonzalez told Max Kellerman in the ring on the HBO broadcast that he wants one more fight at flyweight before jumping up in weight, and the question now becomes:
Who the heck can challenge him?
Somebody might come along, but I wouldn't bet too much on it.
Can Badou Jack Continue His Hot Streak Against a Resurgent Bute?
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Jack makes the second defense of his WBC Super Middleweight Championship Saturday night at the D.C. Armory in Washington D.C. against former titlist Bute.
The Canadian-based challenger is just 2-3 over his last five contests but looked somewhat resurgent in dropping a spirited (though fairly wide on the official scorecards) decision against DeGale last November in Quebec.
Bute's a former 168-pound champion but hasn't looked the like the same fighter since being annihilated by Carl Froch in 2012. He's lacked confidence and conviction in the ring since that night, two things that once lost are difficult to regain in boxing.
Still, most expected that DeGale would run right through him, but Bute put forth a performance that restored some of his credibility as an opponent after seeming to be one of those fighters who remain a name but are clearly past their best.
Jack, one of retired P4P king Floyd Mayweather's fighters, captured his title with a slight upset of previously undefeated Anthony Dirrell on PBC one year ago and successfully defended it via split decision over George Groves on the Mayweather-Andre Berto undercard.
Bute hasn't beaten a fighter of much consequence in a long time, but he still represents the biggest-name challenge of Jack's career.
This could prove to be a pretty interesting fight, should Bute's recent strong showing be a leading indicator that he's still got something in the tank and not just the last gasp of a fighter who is on his last legs.
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What's the Plan for James DeGale?
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"Chunky" doesn't seem to be moving forward.
He impressively dispatched Bute in a fight that was more fun and competitive than expected late last year, but his follow-up performance comes against an uninspired foe on the undercard of an event headlined by the man he just beat.
Yeah, it doesn't usually work out that way.
DeGale defends his IBF Super Middleweight Championship against Rogelio Medina in the main support bout for Jack-Bute Saturday night in Washington in a fight that just doesn't seem to have much jazz about it.
Maybe it's to keep the British champ busy and ready for something better in the fall, but there's not a whole heck of a lot else here for DeGale, unless this is all a play to set up a unification bout with Jack or Bute later in the year.
Of course that assumes both win, which does seem likely.
Medina has six losses, and his biggest win came via knockout over former prospect J'Leon Love in 2014. It's a wonder how he landed this title shot in the first place, given his last three opponents combined for a record of 53-46-7, including one foe who hadn't won a fight in 23 tries.
Despite that the IBF still somehow sees fit to rank him as its No. 3 contender at 168 pounds.
None of this is meant to criticize DeGale, who seems to have come into his own as a fighter, but it's hard to see what he gains from facing a fighter like Medina at this stage of his career.
Hopefully something significant follows.
Will Anyone Care About Ortiz-Berto II?
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Do you remember when the WWE used to do retirement matches?
Would anyone be opposed to adding that stipulation to the impending disaster that represents Ortiz and Berto's undesired rematch Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, California?
Seriously, this has the look of a nostalgia fight between two has beens.
There was a time when an Ortiz-Berto rematch made a ton of sense. It's a damn shame it didn't happen then because it would've delivered the goods.
The two former welterweight champions engaged in a barnburner back in 2011 with a welterweight title on the line. Ortiz captured a unanimous decision in a fight that saw both men hit the deck twice and (in retrospect) represented the last hurrah for both as serious contenders.
Ortiz went on to embarrass himself by headbutting and getting stopped by Mayweather in his next fight. He's lost three of five bouts since beating Berto, and both of his wins have come against fairly unknown fighters. Luiz Collazo, not known as much of a puncher, also knocked out Ortiz.
Berto hasn't fared much better. Mayweather easily beat him. Berto holds a 3-3 post-Ortiz record. His big upset loss came via stoppage to sturdy and durable, but never confused with the most technically skilled, Jesus Soto Karass in 2013.
Both guys are so far past their best, this fight might surprise us by exceeding the extremely low expectations set here, but, even if so, what's the point?
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