Looking back at the legacy of former WBA, WBC, and IBF World Middleweight champion Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin, who came to the 2004 Olympics with a Silver Medal, turned pro in Germany in May 2006, winning his first ten fights by stoppage. . He then defeated Ian “The Cobra” Gardner, 20-3.
Three fights later, GGG began a twenty-three knockout streak, ending with a narrow victory over Danny ‘Miracle Man’ Jacobs, 32-1, at Madison Square Garden in his seventeenth title defense.
GGG won the WBA Middleweight title, stopping Nilson ‘Blade’ Tapia, 14-2-1, in December 2010. Some of GGG’s title defenses were against former IBF middleweight champion Kassim ‘The Dream’ Ouma , 27-7-1, IBF. USBA champion Lajuan Simon, 23-3-2, adding the vacant IBO title, and Grzegorz Proksa, 28-1.
In January 2013, he was training for Philly’s Gabe ‘King’ Rosado, 21-5. He used sparring partners Philly’s Dhafir ‘No Fear’ Smith and Farah Ennis. Smith told me, “GGG hits like a heavyweight.” Smith had been in camp twice with super middleweight champion Andre ‘SOG Ward’ and said it would be a close fight between them.
I covered the fight at the Madison Square Garden Theater, giving Rosado one of the first six rounds before being stopped in the seventh round.
Then GGG traveled to Japan to knock out Nobuhiro Ishida, 24-8-2. He then eliminated Matthew Macklin, 29-4. Two fights later, facing Curtis ‘Cerebral Assassin’ Stevens, 25-3, who claimed he would knock out GGG, Stevens found himself on the canvas in the second round and stopped in the eighth.
GGG stopped former IBF and WBA champion Daniel ‘Real Deal’ Geale, 30-2, then added the interim WBC title by knocking out champion Marco Antonio Rubio, 59-6-1. He defeated Martin Murray, 29-1-1, Willie Monroe, Jr., 19-1, and added the IBF title, stopping Champ David Lemieux, 34-2, in 2015. Then he stopped Dominic Wade, 18-0, and Kell. Brook, 36-0, before defeating Jacobs.
In September 2017, he was held to a highly contested split draw by former middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, 49-1-1, who he chased for the final seven rounds. He then knocked out Vanes “Nightmare” Martirosyan, 36-3-1, before handing “Canelo” a rematch a year after their first meeting.
For some reason, GGG used a boxer-puncher style in the rematch instead of the puncher he used in his previous fight and lost for the first time to “Canelo”, by majority decision. Instead, Canelo’s promoter postponed the rematch for four years.
GGG won four fights while waiting for the rematch, with the last in Japan stopping Ryota Murata, 16-2, in April of 2022. His third meeting with Canelo came in September, and he lost a rather close decision. Both appeared to be going through the motions in a fight put off for four years. It would be GGG’s last fight, finishing with a record of 42-2-1 with 37 stoppages.
GGG from Karaganda, Kazakhstan awaits his induction into the IBF Hall of Fame. The way he carried himself in and out of the ring does him credit.
