How badly would Golovkin have beaten Mayweather?

[LangfordBarrow]

Yeah. He needs a big name win but is stuck in a bad place and time is definitely not on his side. But you can only fight who will agree to fight you. If he can unify all the titles then he'll get those bigger fights for anyone wanting to be Middleweight world champion. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place until then.

Yeah, if this Canelo fight gets made it would be a good start.

 

[JayElectra]

Of course he isn't about power. But his lack of power would've made it difficult for him to compete against an opponent that gave him no respect. There's a reason why his toughest night in recent times was against a journeyman like Marcos Maidana. Maidana treated him in the same manner that Kovalev treated Hopkins or Alfonso Frazer treated Nicolino Locche etc. There was nothing to worry about, so he just bulldozed forward and laughed off his punches, if you can call them that.

Unfortunately Maidana is about the crudest fighter I've seen, alongside Ricardo Mayorga.

Chances are that Mayweather's open-handed punches wouldn't even have been counted in the old days, and he would've been done in like George Benton was back in the day by the judges.

I'd actually argue that's not how Kovalev fought Hopkins. Kovalev fought relatively cautious against Hopkins, always coming in behind his jab and trying to avoid Hopkins' traps. It's by far the most cautious fight we've seen Kovalev fight (and it was smart and allowed him to win essentially every round). When he did get over aggressive and Hopkins landed his sporadic counters, Kovalev would reset, take stock of things, and then get back to coming in methodically behind his jab. It was a very measured performance as opposed to a balls to the wall reckless one.

 

[Seano]

Plus Hopkins is 50 years old FFS.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

I would and most boxing fans would. But that's the same people who buy all Mayweather PPVs. I think it'd be successful but I don't believe it'd be as huge as some people believe it would be.

It would be as big as the Canelo fight most likely, especially if GGG can beat Canelo first. At this point though, with Money talking about a Conor fight, this will almost certainly remain a fantasy matchup.

 

[TheGreatA]

I'd actually argue that's not how Kovalev fought Hopkins. Kovalev fought relatively cautious against Hopkins, always coming in behind his jab and trying to avoid Hopkins' traps. It's by far the most cautious fight we've seen Kovalev fight (and it was smart and allowed him to win essentially every round). When he did get over aggressive and Hopkins landed his sporadic counters, Kovalev would reset, take stock of things, and then get back to coming in methodically behind his jab. It was a very measured performance as opposed to a balls to the wall reckless one.

I never said that you ought to fight like a fool to beat the likes of Mayweather or Hopkins.

I only brought up Maidana as a recent example of a man that gave no respect to Mayweather. Castillo was another one, and he possessed far more skill than Maidana, and made it a fight against Floyd. Ultimately Maidana was just way too easy to hit and his offense was way too crude to land more consistently on a boxer like Maywaether. If he was a more skilled boxer with a more measured approach, with the same attitude towards taking the match, we could've been talking about a very controversial decision. If some bumbling fools gave Maidana and Alvarez a draw, imagine what could've happened in a fight that was actually close. The Mayweather style just doesn't impress judges that favour aggression and hard punching.

Coming in behind the jab and making yourself a difficult target for the counters is obviously a major part, along with the fact that a Kovalev can actually hurt Hopkins while Hopkins cannot hurt Kovalev, the same way that a Golovkin can hurt Mayweather without getting hurt by Mayweather. It means that as long as you have the will to win, you can stay in the fight, if by no other means than throwing 100+ punches a round, regardless of where they land. These Eastern Euros are not going to be so easily discouraged from winning and they certainly give no respect other than what is earned in the ring. An American superstar to them is nothing more than a man that has been put in front of them to beat.

Plus Hopkins is 50 years old FFS.

He might be, but I reckon he would've still beaten the majority of light heavyweights, the same way that Mayweather would beat the majority of middleweights. Just not Golovkin, in my opinion. Not at this age, not with this style. You need to look past the legend of Mayweather being "unbeatable" the same way that Rocky Marciano was "unbeatable", and look at the match-up itself. 39 year old man, with no punch, with slower legs and reflexes than he used to have, it's not even a question in my mind, unless you believe in the myth of Floyd being the greatest boxer ever.