Tom Loeffler Says Gennady Golovkin Is a Modern Day Mike Tyson

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    Gennady Golovkin vs Curtis StevensIn just a little over a month Gennady Golovkin will take on what some are calling his toughest test to date in Martin Murray. Though we heard this before with Daniel Geale and Marco Antonio Rubio, who went a total of 5 rounds combined with Golovkin, his promoter Tom Loeffler insists this fight is different and something to look forward to. In an interview we had with him during the promotion for the fight Loeffler had this to say about Golovkin’s upcoming opponent. “Martin Murray is one of the best fighters in the middleweight division. Rated number one in the WBC, he’s fought for two world title before, which we think he should actually be a two time world champion. He fought Sergio Martinez in Argentina and had a very controversial loss there, he knocked Sergio down. He had a very controversial draw against Felix Sturm in Germany and from our side we thought he won both of those fights.” Loeffler coninued, “So you have to give Martin a lot of credit for taking this fight. It happened in the perfect location in Monte Carlo and its really a world wide event. Murray is very popular in the UK.  The fight will be on Channel 5 network TV in the UK and in over 100 countries world wide so its a big event and its a huge test for Gennady.”

    Another topic that’s been debated when speaking on Golovkin is the low amount of opponents that are willing to get in the ring with him. One of the things Golovkin has said himself is that he’d be willing to move up or down in weight for the right fights. We asked Tom about a move to the super middleweight division and the possibilities. “Well I’ll tell you, we would have fought at 168 pounds before, but we can’t say that the 168 pound fighters will fight him either. I’ve reached out, we tried to make a Chavez fight, tried to make a Froch fight, no response from the Froch side, looks like maybe they’re going to fight each other which would be a great fight, you can’t knock Froch and Chavez. That’s a great fight. Andre is sidelined right now you know with his promotional issues, so you can’t really say, ok move to 168 pounds. There’s bigger names because you know we haven’t had any bites at 168 pounds either. Right now his priority is to unify the titles at 160 pounds. If there is a big fight that comes up or even moving down to 154 pounds, it would be something that he’s interested in but without something like that happening, he’s going to unify the titles, go after the WBC title with Cotto now and Andy Lee would be a great fight as well.”

    The major attribute that Golovkin brings to the table is his power. He has 18 consecutive knockouts back to back. In 30 fights he has a total of 27 knockouts so he is definitely must see TV when it comes to excitement. We touched base on this with Loeffler when asking why he thought Golovkin was so popular now. “It goes back to his style, people like knockouts. It’s a Mike Tyson thing I mean the boxing world revolved around Tyson when he was in his prime when he was knocking everybody out and that’s really where I think Gennady is heading. Every fight like you said, he becomes more and more popular and the response we saw for the Rubio fight was tremendous. I mean, we sold out in literally like three weeks into the promotion. I’ve never had that kind of response, people were thanking me just for bringing him to California. So we’re following up in Monte Carlo, its the biggest event they’ve had in Monte Carlo which is serious with the Golden Gloves. We’re looking to bringing him back to the United States if everything goes the right way in February, we’ll bring him back to United States and have him live on HBO again.”

    Since making his U.S debut, Golovkin has mainly fought in New York. In his last fight with Rubio, he fought in Carson, California and the response was phenomenal, Loeffler says there are also other locations he’d like to market Golovkin in. “Vegas would be an interesting location. It’s a market Gennady’s never fought in. It’s a great boxing city Las Vegas. San Antonio would be a great market. Dallas, you know there’s a fight against Chavez or Canelo, I can easily see the Dallas Stadium, the Cowboys Stadium being a feasible venue. Chicago’s a great market, so the great thing about Gennady is, he doesn’t care where he fights. He had so many fights in the amateurs. He doesn’t care who he fights or where he fights. It makes my job a lot easier. He’s never turned down one name from HBO you know. They’re not use to that. There’s always an excuse. The guy’s too tall. He’s a southpaw. He moves too much and Gennady will fight everybody. We were in Mexico where he received his WBC belt. Mexico City, Suliman said, it’d be great to have you fight in Mexico City, that would be a huge event down there against one of the Mexican legends, so the world is open and its my job to bring back the true definition of a world champion for Gennady, and its his job to keep going through those ropes and providing excitement in the ring.”

    As for his plans for the new year, Loeffler says, “Keep doing what we’ve been doing, try and get the biggest names to get in the ring and fight him and now everyone’s recognizing him as the best middleweight champion, just continuing to move up on the pound for pound ratings. Gennady’s potential at this point is unlimited and what he’s going to bring to the sport in terms of new fans, and opening up new markets, is something that we’re really excited about.”