LAS VEGAS - When Gennady Golovkin faces lineal middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on Saturday night, the Kazakh fighter will be attempting to break a record that many thought was untouchable.
If Golovkin beats Alvarez, it will mark the 21st defense of his reign as a middleweight titleholder, breaking Bernard Hopkins's 20 title defenses he made from 1995 until 2005. But how valid is GGG's camp's claim to the record?
Golovkin won an interim WBA title in 2010 with a first-round knockout of unheralded Milton Nunez. Felix Sturm was the recognized WBA champion at the time, and in October was elevated to "super" champion. A fight between Hassan N'Dam and Avtandil Khurtsidze was ordered for the interim WBA title. This is the WBA's ridiculous maneuvering in order to secure additional sanctioning fees. Thus, regarding the WBA regular title as a real world title is questionable.
Sporting News spoke with Bernard Hopkins just prior to the final press conference Wednesday and asked him what he thought about the claim of breaking the record. The boxing legend said that he thinks if he were to raise a stink about it that media members would accuse him of "having sour grapes." When Tom Loeffler, Golovkin's promoter, raised the point about the record at the presser, Hopkins visibly shook his head and looked SN's way while doing so.
"Even facts sometimes get misconstrued when I'm heavily injected into this middleweight title fight because of history and also because it's the middleweight division. And the last time the middleweight division really had a big buzz was because of Bernard Hopkins, and I understand that," Hopkins said. "But when things are brought up about the title defenses of the second WBA title, that needs to be debated about. The best way I think for that to be represented, especially from somebody who isn't getting a check from me or my company Golden Boy, are the journalists who are not looking to promote excitement or controversy."
Golovkin's first five defenses were of the WBA regular title before he was elevated to being considered the real champion. One can't blame Loeffler for touting the record-breaking title defenses. It's his job to get his fighter as much press as possible. But like Hopkins said, it falls on journalists and historians in boxing to call a spade a spade.
"I think more than less reporters or journalists in boxing are starting to realize there's an agenda for the record to be broken," Hopkins said. "I think it's all bullsh--, I thought it was bullsh-- when it was brought in. Call it a middleweight championship, but to bring it to the point where if you look at the defenses and what title he had - the second title? No - I had all world titles. If we have to deal with those politics, then we know the first original belt is what we go by."
Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) is a fighter who is well liked by the boxing media. He's a good guy and that probably has a lot to do with why there isn't any pushback regarding the middleweight title defense record.
But let's think for a moment - let's pretend it was a boxer disliked by a majority of boxing media, saying he was breaking a long-standing record. Would these same journalists be giving that boxer a pass on his claims? We doubt it.
Let's get it straight - Golovkin already has a claim to being a first-ballot International Boxing Hall of Famer after he hangs up the gloves. But outside of his last two fights, Golovkin hasn't really proved his credentials against the best of the best. It's not Golovkin's fault that Felix Sturm ducked his way out of a fight, but Marvin Hagler was ducked for years, before finally earning his middleweight belt. If there were as many titles then as there are now, who knows how many defenses he would have made?
Golovkin has faced two middleweights in Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs who many consider elite fighters. He won a disputed decision over Jacobs and earned a draw against Alvarez in a September 2017 fight that most fans and critics thought he won. At 36, GGG getting an emphatic win over Canelo is what his legacy desperately needs - not a bogus middleweight title defense record.