Gennady “GGG” Golovkin: Is He Really the Next Face of Boxing Or All Hype?

By Lou Eisen

Photo Credit: Team Golovkin

The top ten myths about Gennady Golovkin are as follows:

1. He hasn’t fought any elite level fighters.
2. He is a one-dimensional slugger.
3. He is strictly a headhunter in the ring.
4. He can’t fight backing up.
5. He has no defensive skills.
6. He has been matched with fighters that are past their primes.
7. His technical boxing skills are limited.
8. He shied away from the junior middleweights because the competition is much tougher in that weight class.
9. He is not a PPV draw
10. He is a protected fighter.

Okay. So there we have it, the top ten myths about Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin. Let’s examine the veracity of these claims in closer detail in reverse order. For some reason, many of pro boxing’s most respected figures, such as trainer Freddie Roach, have accused Golovkin of being a protected fighter. Nothing is further from the truth. Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler has gone to great efforts to secure Golovkin some big money fights against the very best fighters in the sport from 154 lbs. all the way up to 168 lbs. His efforts have borne only modest fruit. Most of the elite fighters in those three different weight classes do not want to fight “Triple G” for any amount of money. To blame Golovkin for that is being rather disingenuous. This is a case of Golovkin’s opponents being protected from the ferocious beating he would surely administer to them, rather than the other way around.

One of the more popular and patently false criticisms leveled at Golovkin almost daily, is that he does not have a big enough name yet to sell out arenas or generate over a million PPV buys. That statement is pure hokum. We cannot say definitively if he can generate record-breaking PPV buys, because he has yet to appear on a PPV broadcast. To say that he would not be a PPV draw in the future is a rather myopic statement. However, if one examined the large numbers he generates in his HBO appearances along with the sold out arenas that are jammed to the rafters with his fans, the indications all point to one inescapable fact. Which is, Golovkin will very soon be a tremendous PPV draw. Golovkin is a knockout artist. All knockout artists draw big crowds. His many fans come to see him score another spectacular knockout, and Golovkin, has yet to disappoint any of his fans.

Golovkin’s first appearance on the West Coast of the U.S. drew a capacity crowd to the StubHub Center in Carson City, Cal. Golovkin made an emphatic statement at the StubHub Center as he enthralled the sold-out crowd with a brutal second round stoppage of Marco Antonio Rubio. Golovkin is a tremendous draw wherever he fights. Anyone that still disputes that is simply jealous.

After all of his successes in the ring, there are still shortsighted, boxing scribes who insist that Golovkin, (who is actually a true junior-middleweight) moved up to the middleweight division to avoid facing the wealth of talent in the junior middle class. Not true. Golovkin’s move up to the middleweight division was strictly a financial move. He could make much more money as a middleweight than as a 154 pounder, hence the move up in weight. Golovkin can fight in any weight class from 154 to 168. He will fight anyone in three different weight divisions. Does that sound like a fighter trying to avoid someone? I think not.

The trainers of some of Golovkin’s vanquished foes claimed before their hapless charges faced “Triple G” that he was a rather limited fighter. That claim is laughable. Golovkin is like a five-tool Baseball player. His fistic arsenal is limitless. He throws short, thunderous punches in combinations. He sets up his flurries with his jab and he has educated feet. He is a brilliant technical boxer who has mastered all of the intricacies of his sport. He is a masterful ring general. He also possesses enough power in both hands to drop a charging elephant or a speeding Buick with one thumping shot to the body or the head.

Wherever his punches they land they always do maximum damage. His defense is also superb, making him difficult in the extreme to catch with a flush shot. Golovkin is able to avoid shots just by moving his head a mere fraction of an inch. Limited? Hell no!

Golovkin has been accused of fighting pugs, way past their prime ring years. This an age-old slur that every great fighter must endure. If you can’t find fault with a great fighter like Golovkin, then slag his level of opposition. This old canard is silly. Golovkin can only fight a guy whenever that guy agrees to fight him. He can’t go back in time and face them sooner than he already has. That being said, Daniel Geale, Matthew Macklin, Marco Antonio Rubio, Kassim Ouma, Curtis Stevens and Nobuhiro Ishida, were all thought to have had a good chance of upsetting Golovkin before he knocked them out.

Geale, the former IBF world middleweight champion, whom Golovkin took apart like a Lego set, was supposed to have exposed unseen weaknesses in Golovkin’s defense. We all saw how well that turned out for the Aussie fighter. Golovkin is a very well rounded fighter with outstanding defensive skills. He is a hard guy to nail with a good shot. He protects his chin very well with his shoulders and he is extremely adept at catching punches on his mitts. Then again, if the best defense is a good offense, then Golovkin is the best defensive fighter in the world today.

Another utterly ludicrous assertion aimed at Golovkin is that he is unable to fight backing up. In the entire history of the sport, only a handful of fighters could fight as well backing up as they could while moving forward in the opposite direction. Gene Tunney, Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali are the three fighters most recognized for that ability. The fact of the matter is Golovkin has never had to fight while backing up. Fighting while moving backwards involves pinpoint counter punching accuracy. Golovkin is a feral counter puncher as we have seen countless times. I suspect he would be just as devastating in the ring whether he was backing up, moving forward or going sideways.

By the same token, it is still puzzling that some scribes still accuse Golovkin of being only a headhunter in the squared circle. Try asking Matthew Macklin if he agrees with that statement. Golovkin dropped him for the full ten count in the third round of their fight with a blistering Mexican left hook to the liver. Anyone that refers to “Triple G” as just a headhunter has obviously never seen him fight. He is an equal opportunity abuser. He has the best body attack in the sport today. He has knocked out as many opponents with vicious, paralyzing body shots as he has with head shots. He uses the entire body as a palette for his destructive ring skills.

Listen, all great fighters have their share of detractors. In Golovkin’s case, however, they are usually way off base. One of the easiest ways to cut a fighter down to size is to disparage the level and quality of his opposition; hence the inane claim that Golovkin hasn’t fought any talented fighters. This is simply untrue. The criticism is misplaced because of Golovkin’s massive talents. He has fought some great fighters but his talent is at so high a level that he is able to reduce elite level fighters to ordinary pugs. In truth Golovkin belongs in a higher league.

Fight fans and scribes will soon have to accept the fact that Golovkin is far superior to any other middleweight in the world today. And, anyone that does not agree with that comment, then get in the ring with him and prove otherwise!