Gennady
Golovkin
Fighting in the United States
Golovkin was determined to become
a worldwide name, dreaming of following in the Klitschko brothers’
footsteps by fighting in Madison Square Garden and Staples Center.
He signed with K2 Promotions and went into training in Big Bear, California
with Abel Sanchez, the veteran trainer behind Hall of Famer Terry
Norris and many other top talents. At first, Sanchez was misled by
Golovkin’s humble appearance: “I looked at him, I thought: ‘Man! This
guy is a choir boy!.” But soon he was stunned by and impressed with
Golovkin’s talent and attitude from their first meeting. He has since
then worked to add Mexican-style aggression to Golovkin’s Eastern
European-style amateur discipline, thereby producing a formidable
hybrid champion. “I have a chalkboard in the gym, and I wrote Ali’s
name, Manny Pacquiao’s name and his name,” Sanchez said. “I told him,
‘You could be right there.’ He was all sheepish, but once I felt his
hands, and I saw how smart he was in the ring and how he caught on…
sheesh. He’s going to be the most-avoided fighter in boxing, or he’s
going to get the chance he deserves.”
Golovkin was scheduled
to make his HBO debut against Dmitry Pirog (20-0, 15 KOs) in August
2012. Pirog had vacated his WBO middleweight title to face Golovkin.
This was because Pirog had been mandated to fight interim champion
Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam. Weeks before the fight, it was announced that
Pirog had suffered a back injury, a ruptured disc that would prevent
him from fighting on the scheduled date, but Golovkin would still
face another opponent on HBO. Several comeback attempts by Pirog were
thwarted by ongoing back problems, effectively forcing his premature
retirement.
Golovkin vs. Proksa, Rosado
On 20 July 2012, it was
announced that Golovkin would defend his titles against European champion
and The Ring’s #10 rated middleweight Grzegorz Proksa (28-1, 21 KOs)
on 1 September at the turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York. The
fight was televised on HBO in the United States and Sky Sports in
the UK. Golovkin put on an impressive performance in his American
debut by battering Proksa to a fifth round technical knockout (TKO),
which was Proksa’s first loss by knockout. Prosksa praised Golovkin’s
power, “The guy hits like a hammer. I tried everything, but it did
not work. You have to give him credit because he had a good handle
on the situation and it was an honor to meet him in the ring.” CompuBox
Stats showed that Golovkin landed 101 of 301 punches thrown (34%)
and Proksa landed 38 of his 217 thrown (18%). In October, when the
WBA (Super) middleweight champion Daniel Geale signed to fight Anthony
Mundine in a rematch, the WBA stripped Geale of the title and named
Golovkin the sole WBA champion at middleweight.
On 30 November
2012, it was announced that Golovkin would next fight The Rings #9
rated light middleweight Gabriel Rosado (21-5, 13 KO) on the HBO Salido-Garcia
card in the co-main event. On 19 January 2012, it was said that Golovkin
would agree a catchweight of 158 pounds, two pounds below the middleweight
limit. Rosado later rejected the proposal stating he would fight at
the full 160 pound limit.