Gennady "GGG" Golovkin: setting the record straight on several matters.

BCS8 · Mar 31, 2015

I just want to thank IntentionalButt for that very good, informative post that I am enjoying a lot, and I am not even finished. :good

Mr "T" · Mar 31, 2015

IntentionalButt said: ↑

So it wasn't like everything from before he landed on HBO was forgettable or meaningless. I'd say just about every name I mentioned above was a better scalp than either Núñez or Tapia (only nominally significant because they were beaten in world title bouts) and in some cases, even Proksa.

2. His demographic.

Golovkin isn't a Muslim, nor an ethnic Kazakh. He never has been the former and isn't even a tiny percentage the latter.

Alarmists rallying to Wikipedia or BoxRec, settle down. Yes, his nationality is Kazakhstani, and has been since he was 9 years old, when the nation declared independence. When he was born in Karaganda, it was part of the Soviet Union, and his nationality in childhood was "Soviet". The region in which he lives was never predominantly Kazakh, which is the ethnic majority across the country on the whole. Golovkin was raised in a region that actually has an ethnically Russian majority, with only a third of the population being ethnic Kazakhs. His father was full-blooded Russian and his mother full-blooded Korean. So he is ethnically Russian-Korean, and his nationality originally was Soviet but defaulted to Kazakhstani when the USSR collapsed in the early 90's.

...and, while the overwhelming majority of Kazakhstani (the ethnic Kazakhs in particular) are practicing Muslims, the Golovkin family were & remain Orthodox Christians.

He's a minority in many senses in his native land. (minority ethnic group, minority religion, and mixed race to boot)

By extension, this means he is as much a part of the same boxing tradition as Kostya Tszyu and Yuri Arbachakov (both of Soviet and later Russian nationality, and both ethnically Siberian...which is a controversial subject but for all intents & purposes can be considered a subset of ethnically "Russian") and Myung-Woo Yuh as he is a scion of, say, Vasiliy Jirov.

3. His skill-set.

Golovkin is a boxer with a big punch, not a slugger, KO artist or "boxer-puncher". He in fact has stressed this numerous times himself in multiple interviews, but the simple & salient fact seems lost on the herd.

Armchair Larry Merchants, cool it. I'm by no means saying his style is a timid one. He is ever aware of the opportunities to grind someone down & get rid of them and never delinquent to capitalize on those opportunities when they present themselves and the steel appears tempered enough in the master smith's eyes to strike - even at the risk of incurring collateral damage. He is by no means risk-averse.

All I'm saying is that he is no Keith Thurman (a "boxer/puncher" who is avowedly ever seeking the KO as part of his branding schema, promising the fans what he feels they want to see to strategically improve his marketability). He is no Ruslan Provodnikov (who may not purport to care about getting the KO, but does prioritize, in his own words, "putting on a show", brawling at every possible turn, eager to swap best shot for best shot). He is no Carl Froch (who keeps his ability to actually box at range kept folded neatly in his back pocket in case he ever needs it: see Abraham, but who most often would much rather clobber whoever is standing in front of him, sadistically relishing the idea of flattening them whenever feasible...and even, sometimes, when not. See Froch vs. Dirrell & Ward, and the early going of Groves I & II).

Even in the amateurs, despite racking up a highly abnormal rate of R.S.C.'s, he was always patient & technical. He never forced the issue. He never brawled. He never applied unintelligent pressure. Yet, he got results. He stopped or at least hurt just about everybody he faced, while facing the best, internationally. You don't belt around the guys he belted around (most of whom campaign at super middle if not light heavy or cruiser in the pros) with 'just' a big punch. It requires a precision of awareness that eludes most even after decades of dedicated practice. It requires timing & technique bordering on the flawless. It requires thinking ahead several moves in advance, like a chess master, all while coming forward, mastering range, and being the effective aggressor.

He often gets lumped in with "punchers" because of the bloody and mangled trail of victims in his wake and high KO percentage, but make no mistake: he is every bit as fine a boxer as you'll find active today. His style may not look the part, but one needn't adopt the Philly shell or indeed even have a primarily defensive-oriented approach to be classed a skillful boxer.

His power is natural, "god-given", what have you - but is a secondary concern with Golovkin. What makes him such a special - and dangerous - fighter is his skill (that is, his ring IQ and long years of hard work poured into honing the craft and conditioning himself to be a perfect tool for it) rather than his talent (with heavy-handedness being the foremost and perhaps solitary way in which he is naturally talented).

The fact that his punches hurt like hell (and that he was just born that way) is just icing on the cake. He would be formidable enough without that.

4.His size.

Golovkin isn't a small middleweight. He could be competing at super middleweight or even light heavy without giving away too much.

Knights in white armor, chill. I'm not saying he is remiss in not chasing Andre Ward or Sergey Kovalev or any of that. Nor am I saying that he is a habitual bully picking on career light middleweights (only three so far have been: Ouma, Rosado, and Ishida - and when you delve further, Ouma twice challenged for the middleweight title, Rosado was a massive strong 154lber and gave some legit middleweights a hard time, and Ishida has become a damn heavyweight :yep).

All I'm saying is that he isn't "skinny" or "undersized" at MW, as some have claimed, nor would he be a shrimp moving up to 168lbs. He is a rock-solid middle. He could not possibly be any more average, in terms of height, bone density, or somatotype. He fought the last three years of his amateur career at middleweight (with a limit there of 165.5lb) and has thus nominally been one for twelve years. In his amateur days he faced and defeated many current light heavyweights of some renown. At 5′ 10½″, he would not be much shorter than average for a super middle. Carl Froch at 6'1" is tall for the weight, as is Andre Dirrell. Arthur Abraham - another middleweight champion that moved up and picked up a belt, is 1' ½″ shorter than Golovkin. Longtime titlist Robert Stieglitz has a half an inch on him. Sturm and Groves, one inch. J'Leon Love is shorter than Golovkin, as is Fedor Chudinov.

To anyone who says Golovkin doesn't look body-beautiful at middle and would therefore carry bloat eight pounds north, I say phooey. He wouldn't be an underwear model at 154lb, either. That just isn't his body type. In fact, I firmly believe that Golovkin would kill himself making 154lb, and would best case scenario be a tight 70% of his normal self and worst case risk becoming another Ward vs. Dawson statistic at the hands of someone like a Yuri Foreman. I'm by no means saying he drains to make 160lb or that he's an excessively large middleweight, or that he enjoys a size advantage more often than not (he doesn't). I'm saying he's dead average for middleweight and with his physical strength (which is well above-average for men his size) and his skills he could easily make the climb and not suffer for it as others might.
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No way his Mother is full blooded Korean

slender4 · Mar 31, 2015

Beatle said: ↑

Speaking of Soviet fighters, it looks like there is no hope for Dmitry Pirog to get back in the ring. All the latest news about him is politics. He's become a politician, and hardly talks or cares about boxing anymore.

GGG has nothing to fear nowadays. :deal
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He was supposed to be fearful of a 35 year old who beat one good fighter who had cancer?

Farmboxer · Mar 31, 2015

Golovkin is, by far, the best middleweight in the world today................

BCS8 · Mar 31, 2015

I agree, Farmboxer. If he goes on like this people will mention him together with Hagler and Monzon. ATG material.

slender4 · Mar 31, 2015

Boxed Ears said: ↑

If we are to be perfeclty frankest about this here, it is only a "Certain" group of people who post here who cannot see Golovkin's true greatness as a boxer..................................................
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Your'e right bro, I totally agree, it's as obvious as can be, it's only members of this one certain group that won't acknowledge his true greatness

...ANDRE WARD AND ERSLANDY LARA!!!

You folks just get in? You from New York? I'm here all week, two shows a day!!!

:yep:rofl:think:shock:p

BCS8 · Mar 31, 2015

Nice one slender

Cisco Route · Mar 31, 2015

AquaQueen said: ↑

Why are you ignoring my post?! Quality of opposition?! LOL Man you're pathetic..

So let me ask you this, if that YOUNG Hopkins was operating in todays division with only a loss & a draw (like he had back in the day) to a higher calibre of opposition (IYO) than anyone Golovkin has beat to date you would rate him higher than Golovkin than right?! Yes or no? Otherwise what's your point?!

Darnell Boone has a higher calibre of opposition than probably anyone in the sport today, do you want me to put him on the p4p list?
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What the hell are you going on about? Did your mom refuse to bake your favorite cookies today? Poor baby. Lol..

If a young Hopkins were around today, he'd never get a chance to KO Golovkin because the Triple Duck would shuck, jive and do everything possible to DUCK Hopkins - just like he ducked Lara, just like he ducked Ward and just like he continues to duck any credible challenge.

Anyhow, Hopkins' resume takes a large dump on the Triple Duck's and anyone with 1/2 of a brain cell KNOWS this. How about you spend less time apologizing and making excuses for Golovkin's WEAK resume...

IntentionalButt · Mar 31, 2015

Mr "T";16978296 said:

No way his Mother is full blooded Korean
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Based on what, her appearance?

In the absence of any other identified lineage and with her being reported as Korean by multiple sources, that is all we have by which to go. If she is a "Korean and something else", that "something else" hasn't been specified anywhere that I can tell.

So until otherwise proven, she's Korean. Whether she looks full-blooded or not isn't cause to embellish that assumption. Does Saúl Álvarez look Mexican?

Xelloss · Mar 31, 2015

IntentionalButt said: ↑

Based on what, her appearance?

In the absence of any other identified lineage and with her being reported as Korean by multiple sources, that is all we have by which to go. If she is a "Korean and something else", that "something else" hasn't been specified anywhere that I can tell.

So until otherwise proven, she's Korean. Whether she looks full-blooded or not isn't cause to embellish that assumption. Does Saúl Álvarez look Mexican?
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I do recall seeing in that video that was posted here recently her being half Irish. If it was interpreted right?

Anyhow, until proof is found to the contrary - GGG is now
Gennady O'Golovkin. Though I do hear the Hispanics are going to make a big play for him in the next Race Draft. :smoke

IntentionalButt · Mar 31, 2015

Xelloss said: ↑

I do recall seeing in that video that was posted here recently her being half Irish. If it was interpreted right?

Anyhow, until proof is found to the contrary - GGG is now
Gennady O'Golovkin. Though I do hear the Hispanics are going to make a big play for him in the next Race Draft. :smoke
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No, it turns out that was Serge being a cheeky little ****** and trolling us. :twisted: :yep

alexthegreatmc · Mar 31, 2015

Good deal, IB!

Serge · Mar 31, 2015

IntentionalButt said: ↑

No, it turns out that was Serge being a cheeky little ****** and trolling us. :twisted: :yep
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:huh Trolling?! Just because I need to brush up on my Russian a little bit (or rather an awful lot)?

pablinov · Mar 31, 2015

Cisco Route said: ↑

What the hell are you going on about? Did your mom refuse to bake your favorite cookies today? Poor baby. Lol..

If a young Hopkins were around today, he'd never get a chance to KO Golovkin because the Triple Duck would shuck, jive and do everything possible to DUCK Hopkins - just like he ducked Lara, just like he ducked Ward and just like he continues to duck any credible challenge.

Anyhow, Hopkins' resume takes a large dump on the Triple Duck's and anyone with 1/2 of a brain cell KNOWS this. How about you spend less time apologizing and making excuses for Golovkin's WEAK resume...
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Golovkin is still a professional boxer, it would be wise to withhold the *ducking* and Weak resume allegations until his (Golovkin's) story as a boxer has played out, :bart

antonio plaisir · Mar 31, 2015

pablinov said: ↑

Golovkin is still a professional boxer, it would be wise to withhold the *ducking* and Weak resume allegations until his (Golovkin's) story as a boxer has played out, :bart
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you see, the flaw in your statement is you suggest nay sayer consider wisdom!

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Gennady "GGG" Golovkin: setting the record straight on several matters.

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