Ryan Garcia claims middleweight great does not deserve Hall of Fame spot

Gennady Golovkin is a two-time unified middleweight champion and has been entered into the 2026 ballot in the first year he is eligible

Ryan Garcia has given his verdict on whether Gennady “GGG” Golovkin should enter the Hall of Fame, after the former middleweight champion entered the 2026 ballot.

The American said Golovkin did not do enough in his career to warrant a place in the Hall of Fame, after the Kazakh was entered in the first ballot for which he was eligible.

“GGG had no really great victories,” Garcia told the Inside The Ring podcast. “Who did he beat?

“I will give him that he was one of the superstars of boxing for a long time, but for me it’s a little hard to put someone [like Golovkin] in the Hall of Fame.

“We are talking about the Hall of Fame, we are not talking about eras, I’m talking about overall, all of boxing. I just don’t see him as a Hall of Famer – I can’t give him that nod.”

The hard-hitting Kazakh has been entered into the ballot for the Hall of Fame at the first available opportunity, as a fighter must wait for three years since their last fight to be eligible.

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Gennady Golovkin is a two-time unified world middleweight champion (Nick Potts/PA) (PA Archive)

He entered the ballot alongside other first-time features, Irish boxing legend Steve Collins and former two-weight world champion Vernon Forrest.

Golovkin was one of the most dominant and avoided middleweight champions of all time – widely considered as the best middleweight in the world for almost a decade.

He is a two-time unified champion and lost only to Canelo Alvarez in a career spanning 16 years, during which he beat names such as David Lemieux, Kell Brook and Daniel Jacobs, and knocked out every opponent he faced between 2008 and 2016.

His first two fights with Canelo were era-defining classics between two of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet, and Golovkin had an argument for winning both of them.

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Their third and final fight was also Golovkin’s farewell, and a final attempt at achieving the undisputed status he never managed to attain – but he fell short at 40 years old and lost a unanimous points decision.

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