Golden Boy’s GGG needs some golden tests before he’s named as the p4p No1.

For the past four or five years and with good reason, Gennady Golovkin’s been talked up as the next big thing or real superstar in boxing.

The current WBA, IBO, interim WBC and now IBF unified middleweight champion, has walked through opponents and looked better with every fight.

His dominating display against Canadian David Lemieux, further enhanced his reputation as he systematically took the big punching Canadian apart. Forcing referee Steve Willis to call a halt to proceedings in the 8th round.

For me, it was no more of a performance than I expected. Although Lemieux was the IBF champion and had a reputation as a big puncher. He had lost two fights previously and had not really mixed it with real top class opponents.

Golovkin was an overwhelming favourite for a reason. Sadly, long gone are the days where the middleweight division is brimming with talented boxers like the days of Hagler, Hearns, Leonard and Duran.

Or the days of Roy Jones Jr, Bernard Hopkins, James Toney and Mike McCallum. Or even, the golden era of the British contingent with Benn, Eubank, Watson and Collins…

These days it is a division with sub par fighters, one or two good boxers but very few world-class performers. This is in no way a criticism or a question of Golovkin skills or credentials. End of the day, he can only beat the fighters put in front of him, which admittedly he is doing in confident fashion.

All I am saying is Golovkin is 33 now. He has been a world champion for five years and has only fought two recognised world champions in Lemieux and Daniel Geale a year ago.

There is though, a case for him being an avoided fighter. There have been many stories of boxers turning down fights with Golovkin over the years and trying to protect their records, something I have taken into consideration. But I believe Golden Boy have also done very well and been very strategic with building him up.

With that being said, for a fighter that is probably most fans pick as the next pound for pound no1. He has not really fought enough top class opposition to warrant that. Despite the way he has dominated and dealt with his opponents.

For example. Andre Ward, though he has had injuries and inactivity, has beaten the likes of Mikkel Kessler, Sakio Bika, Arthur Abraham, Carl Froch and Chad Dawson, all former or current world champions.

Sergio Kovalev, though he’s in an unfashionable weight class. Destroyed Cleverly, Hopkins and Pascal, also all former world champions.

These are the types of fighters Golovkin is competing with for the pound for pound list. Not to mention newcomer Terence Crawford who has already beaten three world champions himself in Ricky Burns, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Raymundo Beltran.

All these fighters are younger than Golovkin, have had fewer fights, but have fought and beaten more world champions which for me is a blot, albeit small, but a blot against Golovkin’s nevertheless.

Then we have Cotto and Alvarez, who will fight next month. Now we all know the number of champions they have fought between them.

Cotto is only a year older than Golovkin, where as Alvarez is 8 years younger but both have had at least 10 more fights and beaten way more world champions.

This is why I feel, despite the confident way Golovkin has dispatched his opponents. Golden Boy really needs to step it up with their match making. With that being said, the talk is Golovkin’s next opponent will be the winner of Cotto and Alvarez, which is an exciting prospect.

Golovkin seems to have this air of Ivan Drago (Rocky IV) about him. His come forward style is menacing for opponents and his jack hammer of a jab seems to be extremely powerful and dangerous.

The question is, how will he respond against a more skilled fighter with power? As previously he has been known to get hit.

Golovkin himself acknowledged he gets hit but stated against his past opponents he allowed this, explaining he just wanted to fight. But then suggested against better opponents it may not be the same.

That’s something I would be very interested to see, as I have noticed Golovkin does have deceivingly good footwork. He always manages to stay in range and control the distance, which is an indication of how well he moves.

We all know he possesses a variety of stinging shots and power in both hands. So it’s no coincedence he has the best knockout percentage in middleweight division history, something which cannot be overlooked.

And again, this article is by no means a criticism against Golovkin. I am merely pointing out when it comes to the no1 pound for pound list, there are many things to be taken into consideration.

His skills certainly suggest he could be the heir to that throne, but this game is all about action and more importantly, who the action is against. So from here on I will look forward to a few Golovkin super fights to really gauge exactly where he’ll be placed in that pound for pound list…..