Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31KOs) since coming to fight in America in a little over three years ago as already established himself as one the few main attractions in boxing in the United States today. GGG’s increasing star power is evident by the 10,000 plus tickets already sold for his next fight against American Dominic Wade (18-0, 12KOs) at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood on April 23. The event is on track to sell out despite many in the boxing world regarding this fight to be a mismatch as Dominic Wade, a skilled fighter with an amateur pedigree, may not have the experience or the firepower to pull off a huge upset.
However, Barry Hunter who trained Wade through the amateur ranks and turned him professional feels Dominic has the tools if disciplined enough to defeat Golovkin.
“It’s a definitely a fight that Dominic can win, but he have to [stay] discipline in this particular fight,” said Barry Hunter in an interview withfighthype.com. “You have to put the work in the gym, you have to bring a plan A, B, C, and you have to be willing to go all the way to the end of the alphabet with this dude.
“What people really don’t realize is that Dominic can crack also, extremely powerful, and can fight on the inside. If he can take Triple G’s crack, and get him in the deeper waters, he could shock the world. But he will have to be more disciplined than he has been in his entire career to pull it off.”
Golovkin despite an undefeated record, a unified middleweight champion, and 20 straight wins by knockout is still receiving harsh criticism by some in the boxing world because of his inability to entice any of the bigger name fighters to step into the ring with him.
Overall, Golovkin has fought solid competition, but the big money fight till this day has eluded him. Even making some fans question the legitimacy of his knockout streak and whether Triple G is the real deal. However, Hunter doesn’t see any reason to doubt he’s the real deal.
“I don’t see nothing in him that would say he’s not the real deal,” Hunter said. “When you look at a person like Triple G, he works extremely hard. Every time the lights come on he show up, and he show out.”
Despite calls from some fans to fight better competition and to move up in weight for greater challenges, there are not many willing to say who can beat Gennady at or below the middleweight division. A move up in weight at this point would be a bad business decision, especially considering Andre Ward place in it all.
Ward has moved up to campaign at light heavyweight, and the other names at super middleweight are not big enough to entice Triple G.
The money fights are in the middleweight division where Canelo Alvarez, Billy Joel Saunders, and Danny Jacobs all still hold world titles that Gennady is targeting.
Still, Barry Hunter sees Golovkin as a significant threat to anyone he fights in the future.
“In Triple G’s case, the man trains hard, he’s smart, he’s not a dumb fighter, he’s an intelligent fighter and extremely powerful. I think he can be a threat to anyone,” said Hunter.
