Gennady Golovkin: ‘I Thank My Parents for My Strong Chin’

Rising superstar-in-the-making Gennady Golovkin has the elements that every boxing promoter covets when finding young talent to cultivate. He’s a good-looking bloke with plenty of charisma, but his fistic lethality is where most of his aura comes from.

Golovkin has frightening punching power, but what makes him so fun to watch is that he is always coming forward, throwing tons of punches and he’s always – always – gunning for the knockout. Many a boxing expert have labeled him the surefire successor to recently retired Floyd Mayweather’s throne, a man who will grab the sport by its fractured horns and carry it on his back to where it was so many years ago.

But for as popular as “GGG” has become, a sizeable faction of boxing devotees remain that still aren’t convinced of what he can become. Many believe he is the product of shrewd promotion and that HBO has been trying to brainwash the masses about a fighter who might be fool’s gold.

They argue that Golovkin hasn’t fought anybody with a pulse just yet, that his opposition has been nothing but dudes who are were a step or two above landscapers and sidewalk scrubbers. On Saturday night inside the hallowed halls of Madison Square Garden, Gennady will climb through the ropes to lock horns with a man who will be arguably his greatest opponent to date. Some expect Montreal’s David Lemieux to expose Golovkin as an overrated fighter.

Golovkin understands what he’s up against, too.

“Lemieux is a champion and he feels like a champion and this is a unification fight,” he said during the final week of preparations. “I think he is ready for a unification fight and he understands the situation. He is smarter now because of his experience in his recent fights. We have (been using) different sparring partners because of his style.”

Golovkin is confident in his own abilities and though he credits Lemieux for being a terrific fighter, “GGG” clearly expects to not only retain his own middleweight titles when the fight is over, but to also collect the Canadian’s IBF 160-pound belt as well. And when, he says, he snatches his opponent’s crown from him, Golovkin wants to clear out the entire middleweight division, starting at the top.

“You know, right now I'm going to focus on David Lemieux because he is good fighter. He's champion,” he elaborated. “The future, yes, of course, but now the middleweight division it's a good situation, very interesting situation, three or four fighters: (Canelo) Alvarez, Miguel Cotto and Andy Lee. I want unification title. My goal is always about middleweight division; my focus is on that weight division. (Daniel) Jacobs is very good, too, not just for us for middleweight division. Great three or four fights in the future. Why not?”

In typical pre-fight clichés, Golovkin said he is not looking past Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs). The Kazakhstani powerhouse has sized up his foe and is expecting a win, but he thinks it’ll be a more challenging fight than his previous ones.

“I think we both have great punch,” he said. “David is strong, too. I know my power, so it's not just power, just a little bit different class, you know, boxing class, timing, speed, discipline, and this is very important for us.

“Right now he feels better because he has a stronger team,” he added. “This is going to be like a street fight. He has a good style -- almost like amateur style. I will beat any style, amateur style or brawl style. I think this fight is more technical for me, and maybe for him too. He will be a good test for me."

Golovkin has been laying out his opposition for a long time now, with his last 20 bouts all ending via knockout. But those in the know are well aware of how destructive Lemieux’s punches can be and with Golovkin’s sometimes-porous defense, he’s bound to get clipped a few times in the tussle.

Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) said that he’s not too worried about the inevitability of Lemieux nailing him cleanly on the button. The popular bomber says his chin is as sturdy as anybody’s is and that he was born with the ability to take a clean shot to the jaw.

“I thank my parents for my strong chin,” he mused. “Lemieux will be a test for my chin. But it's not just my chin. It is distance and discipline, timing and style. With power alone, he could (only) go maybe three or four rounds with me.”