The fans didn’t care that it was a short night. They had come to see Golovkin knock someone down, and he had satisfied their lust. They chanted “Triple G! Triple G!” with gusto. In the post fight interview, the charismatic Golovkin, who is from Kazakhstan and can speak in broken English and Spanish, gazed at the crowd, smiled, and said, “Buenos noches, amigos!” The crowd laughed, and lapped it up. “Triple G! Triple G!”

“Everyone is scared of him,” Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez had told me last week. And this is an issue for Golovkin: He’s arguably the best boxer in the world, but no marquee fighter will take him on.

Avoiding “dangerous” fighters without a large fan base has always been a part of boxing management tactics. Golovkin has made a name for himself by selling out Madison Square Garden and now the StubHub Center, and HBO Boxing executives are working to have him fight a big name. And yet no one has emerged. He will continue fighting four times a year and increasing his popularity—and aura of invincibility. Famous fighters will eventually have to step forward to face him. Eventually.

As inexcusable as the sport might be to many because of its brutality, the drama of boxing comes from the ridiculous amount of risk involved. When the risk is taken away, what is it?

In reality, boxing is less about facing the best than it is a business of theater. After Saturday’s bout, Tom Loeffler, Golvokin’s promoter, walked through press row and told the media, somewhat vaguely, that Golovkin would fight “overseas” (the money is on Monte Carlo) in February and then, hopefully, in the spring of 2015 against a big name opponent. Loeffler is angling his star client toward a pay-per-view fight with Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto or Mexican Canelo Alvarez. Puerto Rico and Mexico are boxing-mad nations whose fans will shell out $60 apiece to watch a fight on television. (On Saturday, the crowd, many of its members of Mexican heritage, were cheering for Golovkin because he is so fun to watch.) But Cotto and Alvarez will most likely fight each other in May 2015. Cotto is 33 years old and seems to be winding down his career; he has had several pay-per-view fights. HBO sources told me it is most likely that Golovkin, who is now 32, won’t be able to face Alvarez until at least 2016. Imagine that strange scenario in any other sport.

Although boxing fans around the world are calling for Golovkin to fight Cotto, Alvarez, or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (who is more name than a talent), they are also under different promotional umbrellas, and their promoters have a business reason not to risk their fighters against the Kazakhstan KO artist.

To tweak the more prominent fighters, Golovkin told the crowd that he would like to fight Cotto, and he said about Alvarez: “I respect him, he’s a good boy.” The crowd cheered loudly with the “he’s a good boy” line. Golovkin uses that phrase after he knocks someone out, an empathetic gesture. Meanwhile he will fight four fights a year until a big-name boxer steps forward to face him. It’s all boxing fans want to see, but the sport’s business vagaries don’t allow it.