“Cleaved from his consciousness on March 30th—a single right hand having stretched him prostrate across the bottom rope in Monaco—Nobuhiro Ishida became the latest victim in Gennady Golovkin’s violent odyssey from internet bugaboo to hurt machine du jour. As has become the norm, the question of Golovkin’s next opponent was picked up with enthusiasm, an enthusiasm that has tended to wane before the ink on the contract dries. Golovkin himself seems weary of the competition he has gored recently. However spectacular his evisceration of Gzergorz Proksa, his mulching of Gabriel Rosado, his anesthetizing of Ishida—the three opponents he has faced since HBO took an interest in him—Golovkin’s achievements have not insulated him from criticism. Whether this criticism is valid is debatable. That it stands to deaden Golovkin’s career however, is a claim with some substance.”

Read “Paradox City: Gennady Golovkin & The Politics Of Avoidance” on The Cruelest Sport.