Geale: I’ll Prove Doubters Wrong Against Golovkin

by David P. Greisman

Daniel Geale is a former middleweight titleholder whose only losses have come via split decisions. Yet he knows that people don’t believe he’ll beat titleholder Gennady Golovkin when they fight July 26 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

He doesn’t mind.

“I like being in the underdog position. I believe I’ve been in the underdog position many times in my career. I thrive on that,” Geale told BoxingScene.com last month. “I like people telling me that I’m not going to win. I like people saying, ‘You haven’t got a chance.’ That’s when I go out there and prove them wrong.”

Geale is 30-2 with 16 KOs. He dropped a split decision to Anthony Mundine in 2009,, won a world title in 2011 with a split decision over Sebastian Sylvester, and unified it in 2012 with a split decision over Felix Sturm. Geale beat Mundine in their 2013 rematch before dropping a very competitive split decision to Darren Barker last August.

Geale has been asked in several interviews whether anyone he’s fought before compares to “GGG.”

“Golovkin is different from a lot of fighters that I’ve fought in certain ways,” he said, before picking Felix Sturm “to a certain extent,” though he noted that it was the situation that compared, rather than the style matchup.

“He was always a dangerous fighter, plus he had a few close decisions… we knew that he was hard to beat in Germany, almost impossible to beat in Germany,” Geale said. “I guess when the odds are stacked against you in that way, nobody believes that you can win. I guess this is probably a little bit similar in ways, as well. I think I’m going in as a big underdog. Although I’ve been world champion before, I think people don’t see me as being able to beat Golovkin. They don’t think I have the power, but I’m ready to prove them wrong.”

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