Gennady Golovkin, GGG, of Kazakhstan has taken the boxing world by storm over the past few years.
The 36-year-old is considered one of the best pound-for-pound boxers on the planet and currently possesses a perfect record of 38-1-1 with 34 KO’s. The former unified middleweight world champion, having held the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, and IBO titles between 2010 and 2018.
As of October 2018, Golovkin ranked as the world’s second-best active middleweight by The Ring magazine, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB), and BoxRec.
However, GGG is not one of the biggest middleweight around as he’s just over 5-feet-10-inches tall with a 70-inch reach.
Here are 10 facts about Gennady Golovkin that not many people may know.
Golovkin has only fought once as a pro in his native Kazakhstan
GGG’s only homecoming bout came somewhat poetically in his twentieth contest, in 2010, against Nilson Julio Tapia. Of even greater significance was the fact that Golovkin was aiming to go from “interim” WBA middleweight champion to fully elevated titlist. Naturally, Golovkin stopped Tapia in three rounds, and he has ruthlessly held his WBA strap ever since.
Golovkin’s American debut
The genesis of the Gennady Golovkin American fight fans have come to revere occurred on September 1, 2012, when Golovkin annihilated respected contender and European middleweight champion Grzegorz Proksa in five terrifying rounds. Golovkin dropped Proksa three times and essentially battered him into submission, offering a glimpse of his refined skill-set and uniquely ruthless ring craft.
Middleweight history
Golovkin made middleweight history in his win over David Lemieux, then-IBF champion and hellacious puncher. He made history by surpassing Carlos Monzon’s 14 consecutive title defences at 160 pounds.
Golovkin’s roots
Golovkin was born back on April 8th, 1982 in Karaganda, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union. The town is now known as Karagandy in the nation of Kazakhstan. Although he is a Kazakhstani national, Golovkin is actually a half Korean. He was born to a Russian father and a Korean mother. His dad was a coal miner and his mother worked in a chemical laboratory.
Languages
GGG can speak four different languages, however, Korean isn’t one of them. Golovkin can speak fluent Kazakh, Russian, German and English.
Brothers
Gennady Golovkin has a twin brother Max, an amateur boxer that is now helping him on his training. But they also had older brothers named Sergey and Vadim. There were both killed while serving in the Russian army when GGG was still a kid. As you may have noticed, Golovkin’s son has the same name as his brother Vadim.
Knock Out
Golovkin has the highest knockout ratio in the history of boxing. This record can be supported by his 34 knockouts out of his 38 wins and never been defeated.
Golovkin once lost to a fighter who never turned pro.
The Russian middleweight Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov outscored Golovkin in a match in the Athens Olympics in 2004 but the boxer never turned pro.
10 Years
Golovkin was only 10 years old when he started his amateur boxing career. When Golovkin turned pro in May of 2006 he made his debut in Dusseldorf, Germany. In fact, his first 12 fights and 17 of his first 18 were held in Germany.
Golovkin claims that he could fight until he is 40
BoxingScene.com’s Keith Idec reported that Gennady Golovkin stated that he could envision fighting until he’s 40.
“Yeah, probably,” Golovkin said. “I hope so. Right now, I feel good. Probably like 40, five years more. You know this is boxing. Every day [brings] physical danger. Only one punch change life. Right now, I feel great. My speed, everything, is good. My family, my team support me. You know, I feel very comfortable. Probably, yeah, five, six more [years].”
