Larry Merchant, former HBO boxing commentator, and Floyd Mayweather Jr., the pound-for-pound king of boxing, are not friends. If you need a reminder, let’s take a look back at when Merchant tried to interview Mayweather following a controversial knockout of Victor Ortiz in 2011.
Now that Mayweather is slated to face Andre Berto (30-3,23 KO), an underwhelming opponent who has lost three of his last six fights, Merchant is speaking out against the fight. So far more than 2,000 seats are still available, indicating this fight may bomb at the box office, so Merchant isn’t the only one who plans on ignoring it. He may be the most vocal, though.
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Merchant spoke to TMZ and said what many boxing fans have on their mind; they want to see Mayweather test himself vs. boxing’s boogeyman, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, at 154 pounds.
After pretending he hadn’t even heard about the upcoming Mayweather vs. Berto fight, Merchant said “I usually expect a serious fighter to face serious opponents.”
Golovkin (33-0, 30 KO) is the most interesting to Merchant, but he shook his head and said “but he’s afraid of Golovkin, so he’s not going to fight him.” Golovkin is the WBA and IBO middleweight champion, but has said he would drop all the way down to 154 pounds to take a “dream fight” vs. Mayweather.
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Mayweather isn’t the only fighter avoiding Golovkin, who has knocked out his last 20 opponents. Golovkin has sought fights with current WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, popular middleweight Peter Quillin, and super middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to no avail. He is scheduled to fight IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux in October in one of the most anticipated fights of the year.
Golovkin vs. Lemiuex has reportedly broken pre-sale records at Madison Square Garden, so Mayweather and co. can no longer claim Golovkin is not enough of a draw to warrant a fight. At this point, it seems like it’s more about preserving their records, and possibly their health.
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