Why Golovkin deserves the kudos of Hagler

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Marvin Hagler held three versions of the world middleweight title in the 1980s and during his seven years on the throne not one other man could claim to be the middleweight champion of the world. Marvelous Marvin Hagler was the best middleweight in the world and that was final.

Gennady Golovkin holds three versions of the middleweight world title now and since first winning a part of the championship in 2010 a staggering total of 18 different men have also held one of the four middleweight world titles. It is a mixed list of big names, good fighters and a quite a few others.

Middleweight world champs since 2010

WBA

Felix Sturm*, Daniel Jacobs.

WBC

Saul Alvarez, Miguel Cotto, Sergio Martinez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Sebastian Zbik.

WBO

Billy Joe Saunders, Andy Lee, Peter Quillin, Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam, Dmitri Pirog.

IBF

Sebastian Sylvester, Daniel Geale, Darren Barker, Sam Soliman, Jermain Taylor, David Lemieux.

* also held IBF version.

Hagler operated at a time when rival television channels were fighting each other for the top boxers, when rival promoters were at war behind the scenes and at a time when the sanctioning bodies were equally desperate to …

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