By Keith Idec
Gennady Golovkin’s detractors point to an unblemished record that, while loaded with impressive knockout victories, lacks elite-level conquests.
Golovkin’s trainer thinks that all will change when the long-reigning middleweight champion is able to “dominate” Canelo Alvarez in their middleweight title fight September 16 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The 35-year-old Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) is slightly favored to defeat the 27-year-old Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) in their HBO Pay-Per-View main event, a 12-round fight that’ll be contested for Golovkin’s IBF, IBO and WBA 160-pound titles two weeks from Saturday night.
Sanchez expects Golovkin to beat the Mexican superstar in much more convincing fashion than Floyd Mayweather Jr. did in their September 2013 fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) won their 12-round junior middleweight match by majority decision, though the scorecard submitted by judge C.J. Ross (114-114) wasn’t reflective of how decisively Mayweather was able to out-box Alvarez. The two other judges – Craig Metcalfe (117-111) and Dave Moretti (116-112) – scored Mayweather the winner by wider margins over Alvarez.
“I think that Canelo fighting Mayweather a couple years ago, whenever that was, stamps him as a bona fide elite fighter, let’s just say,” Sanchez said Wednesday during a conference call. “If Golovkin, or when Golovkin does beat him on the 16th, what I think he’s gonna do is stamp Golovkin as a superstar. Because I think he’s gonna dominate him and do what Floyd couldn’t do. The 16th is a pivotal period, a pivotal day, in Gennady’s career and I think how people are gonna remember it. But we still have the 16th to go, so hopefully after the 16th I’m telling you the same thing.”
Former WBA middleweight title-holder Daniel Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) is commonly considered the best opponent Golovkin has beaten during his 11-year pro career.
The Kazakhstan native’s unanimous-decision victory over Jacobs on March 18 at Madison Square Garden marked the first time Golovkin went 12 rounds in his boxing career. Golovkin dropped Jacobs in the fourth round and won their fight on all three scorecards (115-112, 115-112, 114-113), but Jacobs’ boxing ability troubled Golovkin at times in a highly competitive contest.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.