What Makes Gennady Golovkin Special

Published

11 years ago

October 14, 2014

It’s just about the most embarrassing thing that can happen when you have a phone interview with one of boxing’s biggest stars.

The call gets made. The interview begins.

And then the decrepit replacement phone you use (because you were dumb enough to jump into a swimming pool over the summer with your previous phone tucked into your pocket) doesn’t allow you to hear anything the fighter says.

“Hello Kelsey,” an ever-polite Gennady Golovkin said to me all three times the interview began. He remained just as polite after two stop-and-starts, the frantic finding of an alternate phone solution and the third-time’s-a-charm connection.

But Golovkin didn’t just seem polite. He seemed genuine about it. That’s a rarity in today’s world.

More applicable to what happens once the bell rings, when Golovkin hits somebody, they almost always fall down. That’s also a rarity. Golovkin has won 27 of this 30 fights by knockout, including the last 17. He not only knows how to punch with concussive force, but where and when to do so.

Golovkin is a knockout machine. But the 32-year-old from Kazakhstan doesn’t really know what to say if you ask him about it.

“It’s hard work every day in my gym,” said Golovkin. “It’s hard work. A long time ago, hard work every day.”

Golovkin’s work is paying off. He’s become one of HBO’s signature fighters, and appears to be on the verge of becoming one of boxing’s elite superstars. But what sets him apart from his competition? And how did his rise seem to come along so very fast quickly?

“It’s been a lot of work,” said K2 Promotions’ Tom Loeffler. “I call it a perfect storm in terms of the efforts on our side, the training on Abel Sanchez’s side and Gennady’s fighting style in the ring.”

Loeffler said Golovkin’s style has helped him both inside the ring against opponents and outside the ring with fight fans as well. Golovkin is an offensive force who is fun to watch fight.

“One unique quality Gennady has is his ability to cut off the ring and adapt to any style put in front of him,” said Loeffler.

Golovkin is an aggressive stalker with incredible power in both hands. He walks his opponents down as if they were his prey and disposes of them in due measure. Loeffler said it’s been difficult to get top-tier middleweights in the ring with Golovkin, despite his fighter holding the WBA and IBO middleweight title belts.

HBO Sports’ Vice President of Programming, Peter Nelson, put it most succinctly: “It’s not to say that any middleweight fighter is scared of a fight with Gennady Golovkin. It just seems like they don’t want to be there when it happens.”

Golovkin has come a long way in just two short years, but Loeffler believes it could have happened even faster had certain fighters been more willing to engage him than suggested by Nelson.

“Unfortunately, none of the big names were willing to get in the ring with him. It’d have been much easier had Sergio Martinez—when at that time he was considered the No. 1 middleweight—if he would have taken a fight with him. Or a different name like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or Peter Quillin. We made a number of attempts at trying to get Quillin in the ring. I think it would have gone quicker had he gotten a bigger name to fight him. We’ve had to do it the hard way as far as keeping him active.”

Despite the difficulty in finding opponents, Golovkin has stayed active enough to fight his way into being one of the top budding stars in the sport. He fought four times in 2013 and his bout Saturday against Marco Antonio Rubio will be his third of 2014. Golovkin was scheduled to fight in April as well but the bout was cancelled due to the passing of his father.

“That’s the other unique quality about Golovkin. He wants to stay busy, unlike many champions who fight once or twice a year, Golovkin’s schedule is always for four fights a year. That’s also what made his rise possible in such a short period of time and without having a real A-side name on his record.”

HBO sure seems to like him. Nelson, said the growing mandate among fans to see him fight started because of his mysterious background.

“He’s always existed as a kind of myth,” said Nelson. “You take a look at a guy who had close to 400 amateur fights and lost almost none of them. And he wasn’t just winning the fights, but he was knocking out amateur fighters like Lucian Bute with head gear on. You take that kind of mystique and apply it to a professional career where he goes on these long knockout streaks…and everyone had heard a story or two about Gennady Golovkin…this is a kid who really earned his way.”

Nelson referenced rumored gym wars with Chavez, Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev as well as YouTube clips of Golovkin obliterating European fighters as key aspects of Golovkin’s mosaic of intrigue.

“So much of it starts with the press honestly. The mandate to see Gennady arose from the curiosity about his mystique and a desire to give the man an opportunity to see if he’s real. Everyone can relate to that. Everyone has had a moment in their life where all they wanted was an opportunity, and all they were asking for was someone to give it to them. And they knew that if they got it, they would make the most of it. Everyone can respect a man for whom it takes him nearly being 30 years old just to get the opportunity he’s wanted. That’s a relatable experience in any language and any culture.”

After some early-career promotional struggles in Germany with his previous promoter, Universum, Golovkin found his way to Loeffler and K2. Loeffler said his team’s commitment to Golovkin was making him into a global star, something they believed would necessitate bringing their fighter to the United States in order to achieve.

“Fighting in the U.S. is very important for me,” said Golovkin. “It’s my dream. For my fans, for my family and for my team of course. This is my life.”

But the knock on Golovkin has less to do with his age or even what he displays inside the ring when the bell rings and more with his lack of elite dance partners, willing or otherwise.

Boxing writer Bart Barry of 15Rounds.com told me he’s not buying the idea that Golovkin could become one of the best middleweights ever, something bandied about frequently via social media.

“I would say it is almost a mathematical impossibility for Golovkin to become an all-time great at middleweight,” said Barry. “Marvelous Marvin Hagler was not even a year older than Golovkin is right now when Hagler retired as an all-time great…Before we even consider using a word like ‘great,’ we have to look at fights a man has won against other greats. A prime Bernard Hopkins could have beaten Golovkin’s last three opponents in a handicap match with all three in the ring at the same time.”

Barry also believes at least some of the mystique around Golovkin has to do with his complexion.

“He’s an offensive force, and he’s fighting in a remarkably poor era. Just as importantly, white Americans – who compose the majority in our country, and the vast majority of boxing writers – identify with him in a way they do not identify with Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao or Bernard Hopkins. He may not speak English well, but in appearance and demeanor he otherwise reminds us of ourselves, and boxing has always been more honest about ethnic identification than America at large.”

Regardless, Loeffler said he expects Golovkin to become the premier fighter in the sport. In other words, Loeffler believes Golovkin will take over the mantle from Floyd Mayweather within the next couple of years, whether the latter takes a fight against him or not.

“I think that’s his destiny. I think he has that rare combination of not only being the best fighter but also being perceived as the most exciting fighter. Not since Mike Tyson have you seen that. I think Golovkin, after next year, will rise to tops of pound-for-pound lists. He’s even willing to go outside of the division for big fights.”

Loeffler said fans enjoy Golovkin’s ability to end fights with his fists as much as any other quality he might possess, something increasingly important in the age of bogus boxing judges and controversial decisions.

“There’s never a controversial ending to Golovkin’s fights,” said Loeffler.

Moreover, Loeffler said he expects Golovkin to finally get his chance against top-tier boxing stars next year. He said HBO’s financial commitment to Golovkin was substantial enough now that it would help GGG secure bouts against the likes of Chavez, Cotto and/or Canelo Alvarez. Moreover, Loeffler mentioned possible showdowns against Carl Froch and Andre Ward at 168.

HBO Sports’ Senior Vice President of Operations and Pay-per-view, Mark Taffet, indicated that Golovkin might just be the right man for the right moment in time.

“Inside the ring, he has tremendous knockout power,” said Taffet. “It’s the attribute by which he’s identified most. And it’s an incredibly fan-friendly attribute.”

Perhaps equally fan-friendly is that Golovkin and his team seem whole-heartedly engaged in putting him into the ring with anyone between 154 and 168 pounds. Loeffler said as much, and Golovkin himself brought up Cotto, Chavez and Alvarez by name as 2015 targets without even being asked about it. That’s a quality that a PPV guru like Taffet can really get behind.

“He’s willing to fight anybody,” said Taffet. “Not only is he a great middleweight champion, but he can fight anywhere from 154 to 168 pounds. He’s said numerous times he’s willing to fight anyone in those weight classes. Fans love that.”

Taffet called Golovkin part of the foundation of HBO’s boxing programming “for years to come,” and said Golovkin seemed poised to become one of boxing’s biggest stars. He said a proposed bout against Chavez earlier this year fell through on the Chavez side and would have been Golovkin’s first appearance on HBO PPV.

Still, Golovkin’s future appears bright.

“He’s fighting often and regularly on the HBO service,” said Taffet. “So he’s on boxing’s No. 1 television platform to the largest and broadest audience possible at the most important developmental stage of his career. His style appeals to fans in the same way Manny Pacquiao’s style appealed to fans early on through his fights with Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez and Erik Morales. Gennady has that same universal appear in the ring.”

Heck, even one of Golovkin’s biggest critics believes the fighter is on his way to becoming a big deal.

“I believe he already is among boxing’s biggest stars,” said Barry. “HBO has thrown the weight of its diminished credibility behind him, and with the dearth of talent in prizefighting today, and the disproportionate exuberance that adheres to his every accomplishment, there’s no reason to believe he will not ascend to an outsized stardom–at least until he encounters Andre Ward.”

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Kelsey McCarson

TSS Salutes Thomas Hauser and his Bernie Award Cohorts

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2025

TSS Press

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The Boxing Writers Association of America has announced the winners of its annual Bernie Awards competition. The awards, named in honor of former five-time BWAA president and frequent TSS contributor Bernard Fernandez, recognize outstanding writing in six categories as represented by stories published the previous year.

Over the years, this venerable website has produced a host of Bernie Award winners. In 2024, Thomas Hauser kept the tradition alive. A story by Hauser that appeared in these pages finished first in the category “Boxing News Story.” Titled “Ryan Garcia and the New York State Athletic Commission,” the story was published on June 23. You can read it HERE.

Hauser also finished first in the category of “Investigative Reporting” for “The Death of Ardi Ndembo,” a story that ran in the (London) Guardian. (Note: Hauser has owned this category. This is his 11^th first place finish for “Investigative Reporting”.)

Thomas Hauser, who entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 2019, was honored at last year’s BWAA awards dinner with the A.J. Leibling Award for Outstanding Boxing Writing. The list of previous winners includes such noted authors as W.C. Heinz, Budd Schulberg, Pete Hamill, and George Plimpton, to name just a few.

The Leibling Award is now issued intermittently. The most recent honorees prior to Hauser were Joyce Carol Oates (2015) and Randy Roberts (2019).

Roberts, a Distinguished Professor of History at Purdue University, was tabbed to write the Hauser/Leibling Award story for the glossy magazine for BWAA members published in conjunction with the organization’s annual banquet. Regarding Hauser’s most well-known book, his Muhammad Ali biography, Roberts wrote, “It is nearly impossible to overestimate the importance of the book to our understanding of Ali and his times.” An earlier book by Hauser, “The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing,” garnered this accolade: “Anyone who wants to understand boxing today should begin by reading ‘The Black Lights’.”

A panel of six judges determined the Bernie Award winners for stories published in 2024. The stories they evaluated were stripped of their bylines and other identifying marks including the publication or website for which the story was written.

Other winners:

Boxing Event Coverage: Tris Dixon

Boxing Column: Kieran Mulvaney

Boxing Feature (Over 1,500 Words): Lance Pugmire

Boxing Feature (Under 1,500 Words): Chris Mannix

The Dixon, Mulvaney, and Pugmire stories appeared in Boxing Scene; the Mannix story in Sports Illustrated.

The Bernie Award recipients will be honored at the forthcoming BWAA dinner on April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in the heart of Times Square. (For more information, visit the BWAA website). Two days after the dinner, an historic boxing tripleheader will be held in Times Square, the logistics of which should be quite interesting. Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez share top billing.

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Mekhrubon Sanginov, whose Heroism Nearly Proved Fatal, Returns on Saturday

Published

2 days ago

April 15, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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To say that Mekhrubon Sanginov is excited to resume his boxing career would be a great understatement. Sanginov, ranked #9 by the WBA at 154 pounds before his hiatus, last fought on July 8, 2022.

He was in great form before his extended leave, having scored four straight fast knockouts, advancing his record to 13-0-1. Had he remained in Las Vegas, where he had settled after his fifth pro fight, his career may have continued on an upward trajectory, but a trip to his hometown of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, turned everything haywire. A run-in with a knife-wielding bully nearly cost him his life, stalling his career for nearly three full years.

Sanginov was exiting a restaurant in Dushanbe when he saw a man, plainly intoxicated, harassing another man, an innocent bystander. Mekhrubon intervened and was stabbed several times with a long knife. One of the puncture wounds came perilously close to puncturing his heart.

“After he stabbed me, I ran after him and hit him and caught him to hold for the police,” recollects Sanginov. “There was a lot of confusion when the police arrived. At first, the police were not certain what had happened.

“By the time I got to the hospital, I had lost two liters of blood, or so I was told. After I was patched up, one of the surgeons said to me, ‘Give thanks to God because he gave you a second life.’ It is like I was born a second time.”

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have happened in any city,” he adds. (A story about the incident on another boxing site elicited this comment from a reader: “Good man right there. World would be a better place if more folk were willing to step up when it counts.”)

Sanginov first laced on a pair of gloves at age 10 and was purportedly 105-14 as an amateur. Growing up, the boxer he most admired was Roberto Duran. “Muhammad Ali will always be the greatest and [Marvin] Hagler was great too, but Duran was always my favorite,” he says.

During his absence from the ring, Sanginov married a girl from Tajikistan and became a father. His son Makhmud was born in Las Vegas and has dual citizenship. “Ideally,” he says, “I would like to have three more children. Two more boys and the last one a daughter.”

He also put on a great deal of weight. When he returned to the gym, his trainer Bones Adams was looking at a cruiserweight. But gradually the weight came off – “I had to give up one of my hobbies; I love to eat,” he says – and he will be resuming his career at 154. “Although I am the same weight as before, I feel stronger now. Before I was more of a boy, now I am a full-grown man,” says Sanginov who turned 29 in February.

He has a lot of rust to shed. Because of all those early knockouts, he has answered the bell for only eight rounds in the last four years. Concordantly, his comeback fight on Saturday could be described as a soft re-awakening. Sanginov’s opponent Mahonri Montes, an 18-year pro from Mexico, has a decent record (36-10-2, 25 KOs) but has been relatively inactive and is only 1-3-1 in his last five. Their match at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California, is slated for eight rounds.

On May 10, Ardreal Holmes (17-0) faces Erickson Lubin (26-2) on a ProBox card in Kissimmee, Florida. It’s an IBF super welterweight title eliminator, meaning that the winner (in theory) will proceed directly to a world title fight.

Sanginov will be watching closely. He and Holmes were scheduled to meet in March of 2022 in the main event of a ShoBox card on Showtime. That match fell out when Sanginov suffered an ankle injury in sparring.

If not for a twist of fate, that may have been Mekhrubon Sanginov in that IBF eliminator, rather than Ardreal Holmes. We will never know, but one thing we do know is that Mekhrubon’s world title aspirations were too strong to be ruined by a knife-wielding bully.

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Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City

Published

5 days ago

April 12, 2025

David A. Avila

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In the showdown between undefeated welterweight champions Jaron “Boots Ennis walked away with the victory by technical knockout over Eamantis Stanionis and the WBA and IBF titles on Saturday.

No doubt. Ennis was the superior fighter.

“He’s a great fighter. He’s a good guy,” said Ennis.

Philadelphia’s Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs) faced Lithuania’s Stanionis (15-1, 10 KOs) at demonstrated an overpowering southpaw and orthodox attack in front of a sold-out crowd at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

It might have been confusing but whether he was in a southpaw stance or not Ennis busted the body with power shots and jabbed away in a withering pace in the first two rounds.

Stanionis looked surprised when his counter shots seemed impotent.

In the third round the Lithuanian fighter who trains at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, began using a rocket jab to gain some semblance of control. Then he launched lead rights to the jaw of Ennis. Though Stanionis connected solidly, the Philly fighter was still standing and seemingly unfazed by the blows.

That was a bad sign for Stanionis.

Ennis returned to his lightning jabs and blows to the body and Stanionis continued his marauding style like a Sherman Tank looking to eventually run over his foe. He just couldn’t muster enough firepower.

In the fifth round Stanionis opened up with a powerful body attack and seemed to have Ennis in retreat. But the Philadelphia fighter opened up with a speedy combination that ended with blood dripping from the nose of Stanionis.

It was not looking optimistic for the Lithuanian fighter who had never lost.

Stanionis opened up the sixth round with a three-punch combination and Ennis met him with a combination of his own. Stanionis was suddenly in retreat and Ennis chased him like a leopard pouncing on prey. A lightning five-punch combination that included four consecutive uppercuts delivered Stanionis to the floor for the count. He got up and survived the rest of the round.

After returning shakily to his corner, the trainer whispered to him and then told the referee that they had surrendered.

Ennis jumped in happiness and now holds the WBA and IBF welterweight titles.

“I felt like I was getting in my groove. I had a dream I got a stoppage just like this,” said Ennis.

Stanionis looked like he could continue, but perhaps it was a wise move by his trainer. The Lithuanian fighter’s wife is expecting their first child at any moment.

Meanwhile, Ennis finally proved the expectations of greatness by experts. It was a thorough display of superiority over a very good champion.

“The biggest part was being myself and having a live body in front of me,” said Ennis. “I’m just getting started.”

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn was jubilant over the performance of the Philadelphia fighter.

“What a wonderful humble man. This is one of the finest fighters today. By far the best fighter in the division,” said Hearn. “You are witnessing true greatness.”

Other Bouts

Former featherweight world champion Raymond Ford (17-1-1, 8 KOs) showed that moving up in weight would not be a problem even against the rugged and taller Thomas Mattice (22-5-1, 17 KOs) in winning by a convincing unanimous decision.

The quicksilver southpaw Ford ravaged Mattice in the first round then basically cruised the remaining nine rounds like a jackhammer set on automatic. Four-punch combinations pummeled Mattice but never put him down.

“He was a smart veteran. He could take a hit,” said Ford.

Still, there was no doubt on who won the super featherweight contest. After 10 rounds all three judges gave Ford every round and scored it 100-90 for the New Jersey fighter who formerly held the WBA featherweight title which was wrested from him by Nick Ball.

Shakhram Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs) made good on a promise to his departed daughter by knocking out Argentina’s Franco Ocampo (17-3, 8 KOs) in their welterweight battle.

Giyasov floored Ocampo in the first round with an overhand right but the Argentine fighter was able to recover and fight on for several more rounds.

In the fourth frame, Giyasov launched a lead right to the liver and collapsed Ocampo with the body shot for the count of 10 at 1:57 of the fourth round.

“I had a very hard camp because I lost my daughter,” Giyasov explained. “I promised I would be world champion.”

In his second pro fight Omari Jones (2-0) needed only seconds to disable William Jackson (13-6-2) with a counter right to the body for a knockout win. The former Olympic medalist was looking for rounds but reacted to his opponent’s actions.

“He was a veteran he came out strong,” said Jones who won a bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. “But I just stayed tight and I looked for the shot and I landed it.”

After a feint, Jackson attacked and was countered by a right to the rib cage and down he went for the count at 1:40 of the first round in the welterweight contest.

Photo credit: Matchroom

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