Hello All. Welcome to another Thursday spent marveling at my gloriously bulbous and bulging sack, bursting with gooey, salty truths just waiting to be shot into the ear hole of boxing’s bad guys. This week, it’s all Triple G with a side order of Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
The Realities Behind the GGG Fairytale
Hey Paul, great opinions and analysis as usual. Keep it coming....
Do you believe GGG was sick Saturday night, did age catch up to him, or did he not follow his trainer instructions? Lol....
It was a toss-up fight, Sergiy did his homework, his trainer Andre Rozier has prepared for GGG in the past. I’m not going to say Sergiy was robbed, there were a lot of close rounds and in most of them GGG landed the bigger punch and that's why GGG got the decision.
Sergiy is a solid MW, but there’s several other MW, SMW, and even JMW fighters that could convincingly beat GGG at this point. Aside from a great fight on Saturday Night, what I saw was the end of a gimmick. On record, GGG's resume is good but not great. He has a winning streak of almost half a decade of fighting uber drivers and sparring partners. His Boxing Rec page will tell the true story of his career. For years he was like that autonomous robot that we keep seeing videos of but never in any real action. Boogeyman no more...
-- Nail Rahman
Hey Nail.
I’ve literally seen nothing like this Golovkin idolatry. It’s a little like Pacquiao-mania a few years back, but at least Pacquiao had a long and legitimate body of elite-level work before getting the god treatment. Golovkin went 7 years and 18 fights into a world title reign before facing someone who wasn’t absolutely tailor made to be a knockout victim. And then, when finally facing a good level of opposition in Daniel Jacobs, Canelo Alvarez, and Sergiy Derevyanchenko, was absolutely unable to establish himself as a true elite or anything other than someone on a par with the best in the division right now. I think it’s safe to say that the Golovkin hero worship and all-time great talk (which actually started while he was still beating the Marco Antonio Rubios of the world) has been way overplayed. History will regard him as an excellent offensive fighter, but as nothing special in the Robinson, Hagler, or even Hopkins sense. Forget the BS about people being scared of him. There have been plenty of avoided fighters throughout history and none were afforded criticism-free soft touches for seven straight years before finally meeting a challenge. Can you imagine any other fighter getting away with this sort of red carpet treatment? If you can’t find a challenge in your division, you go look for it elsewhere…You don’t stay put, fight nothing but fall guys, and get showered with praise. The hero worship allowed for Golovkin to travel the path of least resistance—and to actually feel entitled to it.
What I find funny is how much of Golovkin’s recent “human” performances are attributed to sudden advanced aging and not to the fact that he’s now fighting the occasional live, stylistically difficult opponent. Funny how he looks like the “Golovkin of old” when he’s in against guys like Steve Rolls and Vanes Martirosyan.
The Golovkinites say: “Four or five years ago GGG would’ve crushed a guy like Derevyanchenko!”
Shit, four or five years, he flat-out wouldn’t have fought a guy like Derevyanchenko! Hell, he gave up his IBF belt LAST YEAR rather than face him! The reality is that he HAD to fight him this time because Derevyanchenko represented the least risky option of the in-house DAZN options available to him at the moment.
It’s not that I “hate” the guy. I just hate all the GGG hype that has been hurled at us over the years, insulting our intelligence and producing, arguably, the most obnoxious dick-riding fans of all-time—as evidence by the following bit of hate mail.
A “Mango” is a Fruit
Hey Mango
Your hate for GGG know no bounds, does it? You have an unreasonable hatred for this man for some crazy reason and unreasonable love for the one you should be hating, Canelo. GGG just fought a fan-friendly war that the whole world will be talking about for ages and all you can do is take shots at the guy? What a fucking joke you are. I’d just be curious in knowing why you hate GGG so much or who’s paying you to bury him in your articles.
-- S. Couter
Okay, “S.”
I generally stop reading any and all messages as soon as the other guy hilariously and intentionally misspells my name. I mean, for fuck’s sake, why should I take someone seriously after that kind of childish silliness? But, just this one time, I decided to make an exception.
I don’t “hate” anything but dishonesty and efforts to play us for suckers (even though, as you show quite clearly, there are many, many suckers out there who resent being separated from the con job they’ve bought into). I’ve written some scathing articles about Canelo and some positive pieces on Golovkin. Neither one is a sacred cow and I’m not bound to giving either a soft landing when they deserve to be piledriven to the cement floor. I criticize when criticism is warranted and I praise when praise is warranted. It shouldn’t be that hard to understand—unless you’re used to reading other writers, decked out in GGG workout gear or TMT attire, who absolutely bathe in for-hire prejudice and bias. In the boxing writing world around us, I can understand where people get the idea that writing something critical about a fighter means you “hate” them and are out to get them. But I assure you, I I couldn’t care less about “getting” GGG or any other fighter, I only want to post what I believe to be the truth. Believe me, if I WERE being paid to “get” someone, I’d be about 1000 times more ferocious and laser-focused on ripping that person to pieces.
But, of course, you’re an idiot, so I don’t expect you to grasp anything I’ve just told you.
What About Derevyanchenko?
Hey Magno.
How about that Derevyanchenko fellow! Never expected that kind of effort from him to be honest. What’s next for the Technician? I think Golovkin stays far away from a rematch and he may now have some trouble getting other top middleweights in the ring with him too. What say you, my man?
-- Simon
Hey Simon.
Derevyanchenko was a bad style matchup for Golovkin and I predicted that an upset could be in the works. The last thing Golovkin needed at this point of his career and with his eye looking ahead to bigger things, was to fight a guy like Sergiy who never gives up and is always in your face. Sergiy’s also a lot more skilled than he gets credit for and he showcased some of that nuance in this fight while also showcasing plenty of mental toughness.
This is not a fight that Golovkin necessarily wanted to take, but the other options available to him—Demetrious Andrade and a move up in weight for Callum Smith or Billy Joe Saunders—were even riskier. There was a reason he passed on Derevyanchenko last year and opted to vacate his IBF title in the process. The risk/reward ratio with the Ukrainian is not in any A-side’s favor, but it was a fight where Golovkin had to bite the bullet and march forward.
But as good and as tough as he was against Golovkin, I don’t think he showed anything that would make the best of the best in the division quake in their boots. He can still be outboxed and is still susceptible to counters. Golovkin is not the kind of nuanced fighter who can exploit Derevyanchenko’s flaws, but there are a few middleweights out there who could—especially Canelo, who would deliver a real ball shot to Golovkin’s ego if he faces and beats Derevyanchenko while Golovkin dawdles on giving him a rematch.
But, yeah, Derevyanchenko has earned a firm spot in the middleweight top 5 and has clearly established the fact that he’s no patsy for anyone in the division.
Got a question (or hate mail) for Magno’s Bulging Mail Sack? The best of the best gets included in the weekly mailbag segment right here at FightHype. Send your stuff here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com.