IBO Boxing Honesty and Integrity
I watched Gennady Golovkin vs David Lemieux and Roman Gonzalez vs Brian Viloria again and made some new observations. First, Chocolatito is a champion of the highest class I have ever seen – not just his endless streams of relentless punches but his honor and sportsmanship. During the pre-fight instructions with Vilora, Roman has the casual cool of a man about to play ping pong or golf, not a shred of arrogance, intimidation or rage. Either he’s naturally cool or his confidence levels are off the radar. Then after finally systematically finishing the game and determined Vilora in the eighth round, as the referee jumped in to save the Filipino, Roman stayed right there and kept his focus on Vilora – to make sure his opponent was okay. I have never seen this before in boxing. Usually the winner, runs away to celebrate and draw attention to himself – Roman’s first priority before celebration was to make sure his opponent was okay. He watched Vilora for a few seconds then embraced his conquered foe and shared a few private words with him before finally celebrating his latest superb triumphant performance. In terms of class alone, nobody in boxing history surpasses Roman Gonzalez.
Watching the fight, I even got a sense he was pulling most of his punches, pushing them more than snapping them, so as not to inflict maximum damage on Viloria, who is a very, very good former champion – just nowhere close to being on this Nicaraguan marvel’s level. Gennady Golovkin is also an all time elite echelon boxing champion, in his own ways. GGG is your perfect fighting machine, always in total command, never off balance, never in danger, never confused, always executing his infinite variety of punches and tactics. Golovkin can do anything he wants, no man has come close to stopping him. Over 300 hundred amateur fights, over 30 as a pro, and never been knocked down – we just might be looking at a Sugar Ray Robinson calibre all time superstar. Bernard Hopkins recently said he thinks GGG is vulnerable to right hands – well why didn’t Hopkins see this earlier – and then forward this tactic to Lemieux? Because, most likely, it’s either a lot easier said than done – or just plain green with envy nonsense. If Golovkin gets tagged by a right hand, he will make some kind of an adjustment. Perhaps Bernard will be able to psyche up Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo Alvarez to believe GGG is open to right hands – and Alvarez and Oscar will give up the silly 155 catch-weight demand issue that came out last week.
Terence Crawford is not only a great fighter, he’s also a first class human being. While most of Al Haymon’s spoiled and coddled B and C level boxers are talking about fame, fortune and celebrity, Crawford is focused on his budding career and helping the unfortunate. The Nebraskan made a special visit to Africa to help people in need. While Floyd Mayweather turned his back on helping African people (with his mega millions earned from the American public which buys his fights) – because they don’t do anything for him – Crawford is doing all he can to help the poor in another country. Last night, Crawford looked sensational in dominating Dierry Jean, which could land him a superfight vs Manny Pacquiao in April. But something tells me that Pac will not want to fight Crawford in his boxing swan song, as the politics would surely favor Crawford, who is being groomed to be the next big American cash cow fighter. I would think Pacquiao would choose a filler type opponent, in his farewell fight.
There are many reasons to adore Roy Jones, he was one of the best fighters we ever saw, but just as impressive to me is how fair and intelligent he is as an HBO analyst. Roy does not show any bias against fighters of another race or ethnicity, when he sees a great fighter doing great things, he easily gives the credit. He loves great boxing, no matter who does it, unlike certain other boxing figures who seem jealous and envious of any great fighter, and they always take shots trying to discredit or diminish their successes – Floyd is the chief culprit of this behavior. But Roy Jones has no insecurity, he knows he was great and he has no resistance to shining his light of expertise on new great fighters like Golovkin and Gonzalez. I also remember Roy saying great things about Vitali Klitschko when he systematically destroyed the late Corrie Sanders: “Oh that was a great double uppercut by Vitali.” Well done by Roy Jones, he’s a fantastic pleasure to listen to. –Scoop Malinowski
