They say no one wants to fight Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin – and with good reason. The guy has ridiculous power with both hands, solid skills, and a ruthless, pressing style that makes any ring seem small to his opponent.

He cuts off the ring and crowds his foes like no one else in the sport right now. They simply have nowhere to run.

On top of it all, he has a beautiful jab and underrated defence.

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Observers sometimes question his ability to avoid punches, but what they fail to notice is how often he is attacking. The number of times he is hit, compared to the number of times he is throwing punches, is minuscule.

Anybody who has stepped into a boxing ring knows that it takes risk to do damage, and that’s what GGG always has in mind. The fact that he has been hit as little as he has is impressive.

All that being said, there is at least one guy who wants to fight GGG and can be taken seriously. No, it’s not Tim Bradley or Andre Ward. Both these boxers fight at different weights, and there is no sense in GGG beating up a smaller man, or taking the unnecessary risk of fighting a bigger one.

I am talking about Erislandy Lara.

The skilled Cuban fighter has tremendous speed in both his fists and feet, is a southpaw, and he seldom gets hit with a clean punch.

The two losses are a controversial loss to Canelo Alvarez, and a flat-out robbery to Paul Williams.



As far as most of us are concerned, it would be a match up of two undefeated fighters: the boxer par excellence versus the relentless pressure fighter.

Lara would test GGG in ways that nobody else has, and vice versa. Golovkin would be forced to deal with athleticism of hand and foot that he has never faced in the pros.

Lara, on the other hand, would likely have to throw more punches than he ever has – and not just jabs: Lara has shown flashes of power in the past, and he would have to show more of them in order to break GGG’s offensive momentum. Something would have to give, but until it did, we would be in for a spectacular treat.

Unlike Canelo, who demands to be allowed to fight for the middleweight titles at a special catch-weight, Lara is willing to fight for the middleweight title as a middleweight. Gasp! He believes in his skills enough to challenge GGG at his own weight. This is the kind of attitude that all fighters should have, and it’s sad that the business of boxing sometimes gets in the way of it.

GGG would be a favourite in either of these fights, but the bookies would have closer odds with Lara than Canelo. Unfortunately it is just for this reason, and just for this danger, that Golovkin’s handlers will avoid Lara until they can no longer steer their fighter away.

Lara would have to beat a number of mediocre opponents before that happened, and there is a very good chance he could get old in the process – it is hard to stick and move as much as Lara does once age starts to creep up.

This fight would be better the sooner it happened. Both guys are in their prime, and both have opposite styles and supreme skills.

Nobody else who is a serious threat wants to fight GGG at his weight, so let’s get past the business for once and just have some great boxing.

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