Gennady Golovkin, A Star In The Making

Gennady Golovkin, remember the name, and remember it well. I say that now because in a few years I truly believe the name Golovkin will be spoken as one of the best pound for pound fighters in the sport of boxing. His name, similar to that of history books and the fearful name Goliath, rolls off the tongue and if you have watched him fight, immediately the term “monster” runs through the mind. This guy is dangerous and he knocks people out. Much like the days of Manny Pacquiao’s reign of terror a few years back as he demolished his way through the rankings, Golovkin is starting off on a similar path that is looking very promising to the fans.

Last Saturday night Gennady Golovkin made easy work of the tough Matthew Macklin. Macklin was supposed to be a tough test that would make Golovkin dig deep to pull out a victory. He was a guy that took the great Sergio Martinez late into the fight and was expected to do the same to Golovkin. Instead, it took Golovkin three rounds to demolish Macklin, and only one body shot to shatter his ribs and end the fight before breaking a sweat. I compare him to someone like Pacquiao because just like Adrien Broner has taken a page out of Mayweather’s playbook to help him build himself to stardom, Golovkin is taking one out of Pacquiao’s book. The plan is simple. Fight a lot, don’t say much, and just knock people out. Not everyone has the gift to do it, but when one does, it should be taken full advantage of.

Gennady Golovkin continued a streak of 14 straight KO’s last Saturday night and generated a record high for himself with 1.1 million viewers on HBO. He didn’t disappoint his fans. As each punch landed on Macklin it was known that every single one had bad intentions on it and it was only a matter of time before he put Macklin out for the evening. It’s the type of fighter that so many people want to see in boxing. A fighter that at any given moment is going to land a huge punch and end the fight with a spectacular knockout. The name Golovkin has built that reputation. And the people are talking.

Since his first appearance on HBO against Proksa back in September Golovkin has doubled the amount of viewers that are tuning in to watch him. That says a lot in a sport where it has become increasingly hard to generate fans. While some fighters are built by using their mouths, and other’s by engaging in exciting fight of the year type fights, guys like Golovkin have the unique ability to gain fans by good old fashion knockouts. We’ve seen this lately in some other fighter’s like Lucas Matthysse and Sergey Kovalev. These fighters are different, because if they can continue to do what they do best, they can become something special in the sport of boxing. They don’t have to be any nationality, or speak English, they just need to entertain the fans by knocking opponents out.

Golovkin has started himself on a path that right now is endless with opportunities. He’s a class act outside of the ring, and a killer inside of it. His punching power is so absolute that he has people believing that he could knockout the great undefeated Andre Ward who fights an entire weightclass above him and has wiped out not just one, but two divisions. Golovkin is considered one of, if not the, most dangerous fighter in the sport of boxing. People are also eluding to the fact that he is one of the best middleweights than anyone has seen over the last decade. That’s a lot to be said in a weight class that once held the likes of Bernard Hopkins, Jermaine Taylor, and Kelly Pavlik. Do I agree with these statements? Not yet. I’m a little harder to convince than that. Especially since I remember Taylor and Pavlik being built up the same exact way before they both collapsed. But the fact that he has people talking about it is a very good start.

Gennady Golovkin still has a lot of prove. But if history tells us anything, it’s that knocking people out is going to generate fans. He’s not young at 31, but he’s at a good age where he can finish off with a spectacular career. If he were to get Chavez Jr and Martinez in 2014, I believe both could be PPV bouts that the fans would be sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to see. I also believe that if he were to beat them in spectacular fashion the possibilities of being a PPV star would be endless for him. And knocking out them out isn’t something that is too extreme to think of when you have Golovkin’s power. It remains to be seen whether or not these fights happen, but what I do know is that people want to see this guy fight because of the way he fights in that ring, and that is definitely the start of something special.