Even Without Canelo-GGG, There’s Good Fights Out There
By: Sean Crose

Okay, so none of us are happy that a Canelo-GGG bout probably won’t be happening this year. Unfortunately, promoter Oscar De La Hoya just seems to need for Gennady Golovkin to age a bit…er, I mean for the fight to marinate some more. Such things may make great business sense, but they’re a rotten way to treat the fans (not that the powers that be care all that much). Still, there’s actually a lot for us boxing fans to be happy about lately. Seriously. Once we step back from the nonsense, we can actually see things objectively. And, believe it or not, things ain’t that bad.

For starters, we’ve got a top notch throwdown happening in New York this June. That’s when, on the the 25th, Keith Thurman, 26-0, goes up against Shawn Porter, 26-1-1 for Thurman’s WBA world welterweight title. There’s all kinds of reasons to be excited about this one. For starters, it features two of the sharpest young names in boxing’s glamour division. It’s also worth noting that both men are action fighters. Thurman has 22 knockouts to his name and Thurman is nothing if not a man who comes forward aggressively. Make no mistake about it, this is one of the best matchups of the year.

July will also have some fireworks. For starters, there’s the heavyweight title rematch between recently dethroned king Wladimir Klitscko, 64-4, and the larger than life man who dethroned him, Tyson Fury, 25-0, on July 9th. Face it, you want to see this one. Even though the first fight was about as boring as could be, the pairing of these two is strangely interesting, nonetheless. For Fury is about as thoroughly obnoxious and insulting as a fighter could be. And Klitschko, well, he’s staid, gentrified, perhaps even a bit progressive…and, according to many, about as dull as a rock. In a sense, these two are almost like an absurd comedy duo – only bigger and a lot more violent.

And let’s not forget later that month, on the 23d, to be exact, when Bud Crawford, 28-0, faces fellow undefeated junior welterweight Viktor Postol, 28-0, for the WBC and WBO world titles. Although this fight is inexcusably appearing on Pay Per View rather than straight HBO, there’s little doubt this is one of the best matchups of the year. For these are, simply put, two stellar fighters. Crawford is impressively versatile while Postol possesses a very hard to crack defense – oh, and he can hit. Just ask Lucas Matthysse.

Lastly, there’s the potential of a Sergey Kovalev – Andre Ward mega match later this year. Both undefeated light heavyweights have signed to fight one another, which means there’s no wiggling out of this one. The only question, provided both men continue boxing, is when exactly they will meet in the ring. Hopefully the fight will go down before year’s end. It would be a fine way to wrap things up – even without the Canelo-GGG phantom fight.
Sometimes you just have to move on.

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