Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin vs. Vanes Norikovich Martirosyan

It is officially official - all over but the crying, now. Expect the announcement across major media outlets by day's end.

Cinco de Mayo in Cali.

 

Tale of the tape:

Height
Golovkin 5′ 10½″ / 179cm
Martirosyan 5′ 11½″ / 182cm

Reach
Golovkin 70″ / 178cm
Martirosyan 70″ / 178cm

Age
Golovkin 36yo
Martirosyan 31yo (will be 32 come fight night, celebrating his birthday 4 days before)

Amateur credentials
Golovkin 345-5 record, Olympic silver medal, gold medalist at Youth Worlds, Asian Games, World Championships
Martirosyan 120-10 record, 8x US & national Golden Gloves champion, appeared in same 2004 Olympics as Golovkin, eliminated before the medal stages by the great Lorenzo Aragón.

 

He is very good, and was a perennial h2h top 5 guy at 154lbs over quite a lengthy period...from a full decade ago to a little under five years ago. Since the loss to Andrade his career has faltered, with a couple of good wins (Willie Nelson and later Ishé Smith) stifled by untimely defeats (to Jermell Charlo and in the Erislandy Lara rematch, respectively) and then a long spell of inactivity. Lara II was on May 21st of 2016 - come fight night, Martirosyan will have spent a fortnight shy of 2 whole years on the shelf.

His strengths are his iron chin, long accurate straight right hand lead, and body punches, and has good mauling strength in the clinch. Weaknesses are that he often fights in one gear; surrenders his advantages when pressed and doesn't preserve the space to box tall at range, easily goaded into brawls; and his speed is slightly below average while his power is only slightly above.

 

Trust me, I was never a "weird Vanes cultist", I've probably rooted against him in every big match-up he ever had (remember, I number among those "weird Lara cultists" ) - except for Andrade (because I hate Boo-Boo even more and considered Vanes the lesser of two evils). I still respect that he was a top guy and dangerous, avoided super welter for quite a while. He was physically strong, well-schooled and had a very awkward style and wasn't somebody you could deter with a big KO punch, as he was always very tough & determined and willing to get nitty-gritty and have ugly, dirty fights. That's a serious "Nightmare" for anybody. That is, anybody several years back, at 154lb. As a middleweight world title challenger in 2018 coming off a 2-year layoff, he is certainly underwhelming.

 

Common opponent: Kassim Ouma (there could be more, I'll have to check, but this one sticks out for me as worth commenting upon while thinking of it)

Martirosyan struggled to a UD10 against him in 2010. Ouma was getting outclassed early and dropped a tiring Martirosyan in the 9th but ultimately was just given that and one more round on all three judges' cards. The very next year, Golovkin would also struggle mightily with Ouma for nearly the same exact length of time, putting him away with a minute left in round 10 after overcoming a very rocky start.