In only six weeks, Gennady Golovkin will return to the ring to defend his WBA middleweight title against British contender Martin Murray. Golovkin, who continued his dominant presence in the middleweight division in 2014, is looking for even bigger things in 2015.
At the LA-press conference for this upcoming fight, which will take place in the small state of Monaco on February 21, Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez spoke about his expectations for his fighter in 2015.
“2014 has been a great ride,” the Californian based trainer told reporters. “In 2015 it is going to get to the point where these guys will stop making the excuses that they are making. And we will get somebody in the ring that proves to everybody that Gennady is whatever we say he is.”
Sanchez is clearly talking about the big names like Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez, and Floyd Mayweather. If his optimism is correct remains to be seen. Besides maybe Canelo, the above named names show very little interest in sharing the ring with the 32-year old fighter from Kazakhstan.
While Sanchez wasn’t speaking of his fighter’s upcoming opponent when he talked about his expectations for 2015, he certainly doesn’t diminish the challenge Murray brings.
“We started training camp two weeks ago. Martin Murray is a very tough challenge. The guy went twelve rounds with two elite fighters, Sturm and Martinez. We are looking for a very hard fight. But if Gennady performs like he has been performing, we should be in for a great night.”
There is truth to Sanchez’ statement. But it is also worth pointing out that the 32-year old fighter from the United Kingdom didn’t fight the best versions of Sturm and Martinez and that neither of them was ever a knockout artist. Especially compared to the sense of destruction Golovkin has shown is his career so far.
