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By: Ken Hissner
This writer remembers doing an article about my favorite boxer today WBA, WBC, IBF & IBO Middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, of KAZ, living in L.A., along with Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko, of UKR, living in Oxnard, CA, and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez from Managua, Nicaragua.
Shortly thereafter Gonzalez was 46-0 at the time holding the WBC World Super Flyweight title and then lost twice to Thailand’s Wisaksil Wangek, then 42-4-1, in 2017.
Golovkin then has what I consider his toughest fight defeating Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs who skipped the second weigh-in and if Golovkin came in at 170 the following day after making 160 what do you think Jacobs weighed? 185? On top of that he fought southpaw to my surprise. Then in his other 2017 title fight he only gets a draw against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. This a decision many including me thought was highway robbery after chasing Alvarez the last seven rounds.
Lomachenko over the week-end had it come off the canvas in the sixth round and possibly saved by the bell, only to come back and stop Jorge Linares, for his WBA Super World Lightweight title in the tenth round.
In looking at what this writer considers some of the best ten P4P boxers today I still consider Golovkin and Lomachenko as the best two. Others are Mikey Garcia, 38-0 (30), WBO Featherweight, WBO Junior Lightweight champion, WBC World Lightweight champion and IBF Light Welterweight champion.
Then there is Terence “Bud” Crawford, 32-0 (23), of Omaha, NEB, the former WBO Lightweight, WBO, WBC, WBA and IBF Light Welterweight champion now a welterweight who on June 9th will be challenging WBO Welterweight champion Jeff Horn. Crawford will be a heavy favorite in that one.
There’s the Charlo brothers from Houston, Texas, Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo, 30-0 (15), holder of the WBC World Super Welterweight title. His twin brother is the former IBF World Super Welterweight champion Jermall Charlo, 27-0 (21), currently the interim WBC World Middleweight title.
There’s Keith “One Time” Thurman, 28-0 (22), from Clearwater, FL, holder of the WBA & WBC Welterweight titles that he unified back in March of 2017 and due to injury hasn’t fought since.
There’s Chayaphon Moonsri, 50-0 (18), the WBC Minimum World Champion from Bangkok, Thailand. As long as he keeps winning I have a feeling Floyd “Money” Mayweather is going to keep fighting to stay one win ahead of him.
Finally the two heavyweight champions Anthony “AJ” Joshua, 21-0 (20), who holds the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO titles, from Watford, UK. Then the WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder, 40-0 (39), from Tuscaloosa, AL.
Garcia and Lomachenko may be a future unification bout. Joshua and Wilder may be a future unification bout. Crawford winning the WBO title could meet Thurman in a unification bout. Golovkin and Charlo could be in a unification bout. So as you can see if those bouts happen my top ten P4P list four of them would be eliminated.
It’s not like “back in the day” where most of us knew there was only one P4P best and that was “Sugar” Ray Robinson!
