By Hector Echevarria
High risk low reward is the term use by most boxing purest to describe a fighter who is good but can’t get the money guys in boxing. It’s basically an excuse for top fighters to avoid fighting some of the harder fights. That term applies to no fighter more than Gennady Golovkin.
A native of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, now residing in Germany, he has been one of the most feared fighters in boxing today. His name has been a hot topic of conversation among many boxing circles. Golovkin is a celebrated amateur champion winning a silver medal in the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, Greece, where he beat American super middleweight Andre Dirrell.
There’s a YouTube video of Gennady knocking out former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in Bangkok at the amateur world championships. There are countless rumors of Golovkin busting up WBC middle weight champion, Julio Cesar Chavez JR and super welterweight contender Alfredo Angulo. ThaBoxingvoice.com had a conversation with Golovkin and his trainer Abel Sanchez on Sunday.
He spoke on his confirmed match up with Grzegorz Proksa on September 1st. “It’s a downgrade from the scheduled fight we had on August 25th against WBO champ Dmitry Pirog on HBO but he’s the only one that stepped, but he’s getting knocked out, “said Sanchez. The fight was canceled with Pirog because of a back injury suffered by Dmitry in training camp for that fight.
Sanchez spoke about the fight saying, “It was very unfortunate that it didn’t come off because it would have gave my fighter great exposure. We were looking to get in there against the hot named opponent we had scheduled.” Golovkin also spoke with us but his English wasn’t the best, but he was excited and said, “We just want to fight the best in the middleweight and junior middleweight division”, as Abel also expressed because Gennady walks a bit above the 160 mark and can campaign in both divisions.
Abel expressed that he’s grateful that HBO has still kept their promise of still holding a date for him. Team Golovkin spoke about the frustration of most top ten middleweights turning them down and stated, “We tried to get fights with Darren Barker, Martin Murray, and ‘Kid Chocolate’ Peter Quillin.”
It was also confirmed on ThaBoxingVoice show by Sanchez about a sparring match that took place with Quillin and Golovkin, and Sanchez, stated, “Kid Chocolate was roughed up to which I have the video should anyone want to dispute that. He sparred a lot of guys at the Wild Card, and no disrespect to those guys but Gennady is on another level.”
I’ve watched Golovkin in several fights and he has a fan friendly style. He’s a hard puncher and also has very quick hand but has some weaknesses where he tends to hold his left hand very low that is inviting to a left hook. I also watched a past his prime Kassim Ouma overwhelm him with his activity and have some success early on only until he faded. That was when Golovkin started to come on and eventually stop him.
With that being said, I still would like to see him to get an opportunity against a top 10 middleweight to show his worth to American fans to become a household name here in the states. Team Golovkin displayed their frustration to some of the opponents mentioned stating, “Some of those guys like a (Vanes) Martirosyan wanted 75% of the purse, and in the case of Vanes, a catch weight.”
Abel has a lot of confidence in his fighter who he has taken to with a very close bond. He trains in and lives in Big Bear with him. Golovkin is also promoted by K2 promotions, a company that has heavyweight power houses Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko. A company ran by Tom Loeffler who has stated he’s trying to get his fighter the best fights.
We all tune in to the TV game show Fear Factor where guest take sums of money to do crazy stunts. In boxing Golovkin has turned into that. Which top middleweight will take the crazy stunt to fight Golovkin?
For Full Audio of this interview click here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thaboxingvoiceradioshow/2012/07/22/sergio-martinez-ronald-cruz-and-gennady-golvokin