Gennady Golovkin: record, next fight and profile →
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Vanes Martirosyan, as of today, is a 32-year-old man. He’s been a pro fighter for 13 of those years, and was accomplished enough as an amateur to land a spot on the U.S. team that traveled to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. But his career-defining moment - or at least the one that...
If Gennady Golovkin beats Vanes Martirosyan on Saturday night, he’ll tie Bernard Hopkins’ middleweight record by making a 20th consecutive defense of one of his 160-pound titles. The potential tie notwithstanding, Golovkin thinks his reign is more impressive than Hopkins’ 10-year run as a middleweight champion. The unbeaten Golovkin said during a conference call Monday that his record is “much stronger” than Hopkins’ resume when the Philadelphia native was a middleweight champ.
Abel Sanchez wasn’t the least bit impressed with how Daniel Jacobs fought Saturday night. Gennady Golovkin’s trainer thinks Jacobs “looked terrible” during his 12-round victory over Maciej Sulecki. Sanchez attributes Jacobs’ slippage to going 12 hard rounds against Golovkin in their middleweight title fight 13 months ago at Madison Square Garden.
NEW YORK – Daniel Jacobs and promoter Eddie Hearn hope his HBO deal eventually continues the way it was designed. The plan Hearn arranged along with Jacobs’ manager, Keith Connolly, was for Jacobs to win two HBO bouts before getting either a rematch against Gennady Golovkin or a shot at Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez. Now that he has beaten Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki in those two fights, it appears as if they’ll have to wait longer than they thought for a high-profile fight against Golovkin or Alvarez.
Jacobs (34-2-0) became the mandatory challenger for the WBA 160-pound title, giving the popular Brooklyn fighter and cancer survivor hopes of a chance to avenge his loss to Gennady Golovkin from last year. He also mentioned a fight with Jermall Charlo, who became the WBC's interim middleweight champ with a second-round knockout of Hugo Centeno Jr. in this same ring last week.
NEW YORK – If the heavily favored Daniel Jacobs beats Maciej Sulecki on Saturday night in Brooklyn, Eddie Hearn has been assured he’ll become the mandatory challenger for Gennady Golovkin’s WBA middleweight title. Jacobs’ promoter still doesn’t think there’s a legitimate chance Jacobs could get his coveted rematch against
Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) may have a problem if he intends to fight Canelo Alvarez in the fall - because the International Boxing Federation has ordered him to make a mandatory defense against Sergiy Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs).
Gennady Golovkin beat one of the most talented fighters on the 2004 United States Olympic Team to qualify for the middleweight final in Athens. Golovkin doesn’t believe Andre Dirrell was the best boxer on the American team that year, though. The unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion doesn’t think that distinction belongs to Andre Ward, either, even though Ward won the light heavyweight gold medal that year.
Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs), the current world middleweight champion of the World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Organization (IBO) and International Boxing Federation (IBF), said that a rematch against Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) is his priority for September.
Gennady Golovkin isn’t the only one fighting May 5 that doesn’t believe Canelo Alvarez’s excuse. Vanes Martirosyan, who replaced Alvarez as Golovkin’s opponent that night, also dismissed the Mexican superstar’s explanation for his performance-enhancing drug ordeal. Alvarez contends contaminated meat consumed in Mexico is responsible for him twice testing positive for clenbuterol in February.