by David P. Greisman
Those who have been questioning whether there is substance to Gennady Golovkin behind the hype won’t be doing so anymore if “GGG” beats Matthew Macklin, according to Golovkin’s promoter.
“If he beats Matthew Macklin, he’ll legitimately be recognized as the No. 2 guy behind Sergio Martinez,” Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions said on a June 19 media conference call in advance of Golovkin-Macklin, which is taking place on June 29 at MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn.
Loeffler mentioned those who have been critical of Golovkin’s opponents being junior middleweights coming up in weight or otherwise not being top-level competition. But, he countered, “We’ve told HBO, there’s no name we’ve turned down yet for Gennady.”
Golovkin, 31, is undefeated at 26-0, with all but three of those wins coming by knockout. His past three bouts saw him stop Grzegorz Proksa on HBO, batter Gabriel Rosado en route to a technical knockout win on HBO, and score a one-punch knockout of Nobuhiro Ishida on an independent pay-per-view card airing out of Monaco. He’s held a World Boxing Association world title since 2010.
Loeffler called the Macklin fight “the best matchup we can put together at this time” and talked up Macklin’s credentials.
Macklin, 31, is 29-4 with 20 knockouts and is coming off a first-round knockout of Joachim Alcine. His two bouts before that were a controversial split decision loss to Felix Sturm in June 2011 and an 11th-round stoppage loss to Sergio Martinez in March 2012.
“He’s probably in the top 5, maybe the best non-titleholder in the division,” Loeffler said. “This is the kind of test that Golovkin needs.”
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter @fightingwords2 or send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
