"I'm not saying this because I was champ, but the middleweight division was a lot more loaded when I was the champion. I say a lot of times, I think Triple G is a great champion, he's got all the tools and power, but he hasn't been tested by a naturally big middleweight," stated former undisputed middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, who shared his thoughts on Gennady Golovkin's victory over Daniel Jacobs and the current state of the middleweight division. Check out what else he had to say!
KELLY PAVLIK ON GOLOVKIN'S WIN OVER JACOBS AND THE CURRENT STATE OF THE MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION:
Everybody gave Jacobs a hard time because of the IBF's rules; not the other rules of the other sanctioning bodies, but the IBF. I said this on my podcast, the man didn't do anything illegal or anything that anybody else would've done. To only give him 10 pounds, that's a couple of glasses of water and a chicken salad. That's not enough to rehydrate and he's going in fighting a bad dude. Every fighter I know, after they have made weight, their goal is to get as big and strong as he can on fight night. He made 160. He actually weighed 159.9 or something like that. He actually came in under the contractual signed agreement. So he did everything that he was supposed to do to make weight for that fight, so how can you get mad over it. But I was always against people that didn't make the weight, get stripped, and they go in bigger
I'm not saying this because I was champ, but the middleweight division was a lot more loaded when I was the champion. I say a lot of times, I think Triple G is a great champion, he's got all the tools and power, but he hasn't been tested by a naturally big middleweight. And I always wondered how would he react when he hits somebody and they don't go nowhere and they fire back shots of their own and they are actually talented. And of course that was answered for us. I had that fight very, very close, but I did have Triple G winning it. That knockdown was a big reason, but if they would have gave the fight to Jacobs, I couldn't be mad at that decision. I couldn't call it a robbery. That's how close it was. Some people that know boxing and was watching it would say that Jacobs won, and a lot of people like me think Triple G squeaked it out. I thought it was a real good fight, but to me, Triple G just looked...even when he fought Lemieux, he looks like he has a hard time and he don't have the snap on his punches. I don't know if it's strength and conditioning or what it is, but especially in the championship rounds, it looks like he was totally spent muscle-wise. And maybe the strategy of Jacobs, because if I was a betting man, I would put a lot of money down that Jacobs was 20 pounds heavier.
But the middleweight division right now is a little bit lackluster. You go back and unfortunately I couldn't get the fights with these guys, but I wanted those too, that's why I jumped up two weight classes to fight Bernard. You had guys like [Artur] Abraham, and Abraham was a strong fighter. What a fight that would have been between Abraham and Triple G. I guarantee you right now, Edison Miranda, who everybody knew was a monster until I beat him like I did, but he was a feared fighter and everything else at that time. He fought Abraham and broke Abraham's jaw and Abraham kept fighting. Abraham had a hell of a chin and could hit hard. What would have happened if Triple G would've fought somebody like that? What would have happened if he would've took that chance and moved up and fought somebody like [Carl] Froch? Even a 2006-2007 Felix Sturm or Edison Miranda or me? I threw 90 punches a round, my knockout ratio, my chin, how would he had faired against me? I think it would have been a great fight. I don't pick if I would have won or not; I leave that up to everybody else. I always try to stay humble, but I think it would have been a great fight. But he just don't have that...it's not his fault, but Triple G don't have those people in his weight class right now. He has Danny Jacobs, but even with Canelo I feel bad because Canelo's a great fighter and he's talented, but if he catches Canelo and stops him, you're going to have people say, "Well, Canelo's not a middleweight." The middleweight division, it's just bad timing right now, but you have that. You had that with the heavyweight division recently and eventually you have it in every weight class. Unfortunately for Triple G, there's just no one shining at middleweight. But Danny Jacobs, on the other hand, everybody's talking about a rematch. Personally, Triple G ain't gotta take a rematch, he won, but for the fans, of course we would like to see that rematch. It was a great fight and that's really the only matchup for Triple G. But I think maybe now with that fight going the way it did, maybe Canelo's people will see Triple G as human and that fight happens. They may look at it like, "He can't knock everybody out," and that fight may be more realistic now. I think the fans may still want to see that.
BE SURE TO CHECK BACK SOON FOR MUCH MORE WITH FORMER UNDISPUTED MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION KELLY PAVLIK
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