Gennady Golovkin brought the “big drama show” to HBO pay per view on Saturday night, but Bernard Hopkins believes he saw chinks in the armor at Madison Square Garden.
Hoping to possibly hype a huge showdown, Hopkins believes two fighters on Golovkin’s radar came away from the bout confident they could handle the monster from Kazakh. Bernard believes Canelo Alvarez or Andre Ward could both expose GGG.
“I think a lot of middleweights,” Hopkins said, “maybe super middleweights and maybe junior middleweights looked at this and were seeing something that they can exploit, in spite of the win of by the champion. Lemieux was out-gunned at the end, but sometimes you can leave a blueprint.
“Whether you think Oscar [De La Hoya] won or lost against Tito [Trinidad], I saw something in that fight. I saw vulnerabilities [in Trinidad]. People say, ‘How can you look at something a guy did wrong when he won?’ We all do something wrong, but can our opponent capitalize on it so it’s exposed? So I think after [Saturday night], there may be a few fighters licking their chops.”
Hopkins didn’t get into specifics when breaking down Golovkin’s (34-0, 31 KOs) weaknesses.
“His style is totally different from Lemieux,” said Hopkins, a partner in Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Lemieux and Alvarez. “His punches are crisper and sharper. He’s been at the big stage with Floyd Mayweather, and I think he learned greatly from that. I think he’ll see this fight and understand that he has to have discipline through a whole 12 rounds of fighting. I see him being a better boxer who can take Triple-G into deep waters and frustrate him.
“Andre Ward would confuse him, frustrate him. You’ve got one straight-up guy and you’ve got one guy who knows how to be on angles, knows how to spin and can crack, and has got nice size to him. He’s not a big, tall guy, but Andre has enough power to make you respect him. Andre is an all-around fighter with an Olympic pedigree.”
That’s why they make the fights.
By Glenn Erby
