Or hit as hard, he never bombed anyone out at middleweight and went the distance, 11(7)-0 in world title fights shows that, especially when 3 of the stoppages were late on and those that came early were against undersized or overmatched opponents. Abraham has never changed, he's always been a bit of a plodder, working in short bursts, then using an excellent guard to keep anything that came back out. At middleweight he relied on his size and strength because he was big at the weight and used it to grind opponents down with the weight behind his punches. But that didn't carry up to 12st because he no longer had the physical advantages he needed and any power he carried was down to size, not natural power or technique. Abraham was a far better middleweight than super middleweight.SteveDow wrote:Abraham is also a poor comparison in my view. Abraham does not have anything like the subtle variety of punches GGG has or the ability to cut off the ring like GGG has.
Golovkin is much more likely to be a force at super middleweight than Abraham was moving up because his punching power is a combination of unusual natural power, but also excellent technique and he doesn't rely on the sheer weight behind each punch to hurt his opponents. As you mention, he's also a far better boxer than Abraham, who's very flat footed, works mostly in straight lines, spends most of each round behind a tight guard, then occasionally opens up with a combination, before going back into his shell, too easy to outbox and outwork, shown by Paul Smith almost beating him. Golovkin's footwork is far better, he cuts off the ring very well and he works openings in his opponents defence for the bigger shots to land. His biggest weakness is his defence, which isn't as good as Abraham's, partially because he spends more time on the front foot, but also because he's either willing to walk through his opponents punches to land his own, or because he's careless and doesn't pay enough attention to what's coming back at him.
