113 Facts About Gennady Golovkin

Gennady Golovkin has held multiple middleweight world championships, and is a two-time former unified champion.

Gennady Golovkin held the WBA, WBC and IBF titles at varying points between 2014 and 2023, and challenged once for the undisputed super middleweight championship in 2022.

Gennady Golovkin is a two-time former IBO middleweight champion, having held the title twice between 2011 and 2023.

Gennady Golovkin is ranked as the world's best active middleweight by The Ring, Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, ESPN, and BoxRec.

In 2010, Gennady Golovkin won the WBA interim middleweight title by defeating Milton Nunez.

In 2014, Gennady Golovkin was elevated to the status of WBA champion and successfully defended both his titles against Daniel Geale.

Gennady Golovkin lost all his titles, including his undefeated record, following a loss to Alvarez in 2018.

Gennady Golovkin regained his IBF and IBO titles by defeating Sergiy Derevyanchenko in 2019, and regained his WBA title by defeating Ryota Murata in 2022.

Gennady Golovkin is said to have one of the most durable chins in boxing history, having never been knocked down or otherwise stopped in a total of 395 fights, 45 as a professional and 350 as an amateur.

Gennady Golovkin went on to represent Kazakhstan at the 2004 Summer Olympics, winning a middleweight silver medal.

Gennady Golovkin was born in the city of Karaganda in the Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union to a Russian coal miner father and an ethnic Korean mother, who worked as an assistant in a chemical laboratory.

Gennady Golovkin's maternal grandfather, Sergey Pak, was an ethnic Korean living in Soviet Russia, who was forcefully moved to Kazakhstan.

Gennady Golovkin has three brothers, two elder named Sergey and Vadim and a twin, Max.

Sergey and Vadim had encouraged Gennady Golovkin to start boxing when Gennady Golovkin was eight years old.

Gennady Golovkin began boxing competitively in 1993, age 11, winning the local Karaganda Regional tournament in the cadet division.

Gennady Golovkin became a scholarship holder with the Olympic Solidarity program in November 2002.

Gennady Golovkin was given 4 more relatively easy bouts in 2009.

Gennady Golovkin routed Nunez, defeating him in 58 seconds to become a world champion.

Gennady Golovkin tried to fight WBA champion Felix Sturm and Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam during this time, but was unable to get them in the ring.

Gennady Golovkin has an excellent chance to become a champion in athletics.

Gennady Golovkin was determined to become a worldwide name, dreaming of following in the Klitschko brothers' footsteps by fighting in Madison Square Garden and Staples Center.

Gennady Golovkin signed with K2 Promotions and went into training in Big Bear, California with Abel Sanchez, the veteran trainer behind Hall of Famer Terry Norris and many other top talents.

Gennady Golovkin has since then worked to add Mexican-style aggression to Golovkin's Eastern European-style amateur discipline, thereby producing a formidable hybrid champion.

Gennady Golovkin was scheduled to make his HBO debut against Dmitry Pirog in August 2012.

Gennady Golovkin put on an impressive performance in his American debut by battering Proksa to a fifth-round technical knockout, which was Proksa's first loss by knockout.

On 19 January 2012, it was said that Gennady Golovkin would agree a catchweight of 158 pounds, two pounds below the middleweight limit.

Gennady Golovkin continued his stoppage-streak with a TKO victory over Rosado.

Gennady Golovkin fought British former two-time world title challenger Matthew Macklin at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut on 29 June 2013.

Gennady Golovkin stated that he wanted to fight a further two times in 2013.

In round 1, Gennady Golovkin landed clean with his right hand and sent Macklin against the ropes, although it could have been ruled a knockdown because it appeared that only the roped kept Macklin on his feet, referee Eddie Cotton, ruled out the knockdown.

CompuBox Stats showed that Gennady Golovkin landed 58 of 116 punches thrown and Macklin landed 29 of 118.

Gennady Golovkin earned $350,000 compared to the $300,000 earned by Macklin.

In front of 4,618, Gennady Golovkin successfully retained his titles against Stevens via an eighth-round technical knockout, methodically breaking down the latter with many ferocious punches to the head and body.

Gennady Golovkin's camp requested that he be awarded the WBA middleweight title in December 2013, but this was refused by the WBA, as Gennady Golovkin was already granted special permission for a fight prior to his mandatory commitment.

Gennady Golovkin went on to drop Adama again in the 6th by landing two sharp left hooks to his head, and then again in the 7th with a hard jab.

Gennady Golovkin then nailed Adama with a left hook to the jaw, sending Adama staggering and forcing the referee to stop the bout.

Gennady Golovkin was granted a special permission to defend his title against Daniel Geale.

In front of 8,572 at The Theater, Gennady Golovkin successfully defended his title, defeating Geale via a third round stoppage.

Gennady Golovkin retained his WBA and IBO middleweight titles and won the WBC Interim title which made him mandatory challenger to full titleholder Miguel Cotto.

The number of defenses is sometimes questioned as the WBA Regular belt, held by Gennady Golovkin previously, is regarded as a secondary title.

On 21 February 2015, Gennady Golovkin defended his middleweight titles against British boxer Martin Murray in Monte Carlo.

Murray started the fight off well defensively, but by the fourth round Gennady Golovkin began to heat up and started finding Murray consistently.

Gennady Golovkin found it much easier to land his punches on Murray in the middle-rounds.

Boxing Insider reported that a deal had been agreed for Gennady Golovkin to defend his titles against American Willie Monroe Jr.

In front of 12,372, Gennady Golovkin defeated Monroe via sixth-round TKO, to extend his KO streak to 20.

Gennady Golovkin landed 133 of 297 punches thrown, Monroe landed 87 punches of 305 thrown.

Gennady Golovkin received a purse of $1.5 million and Monroe earned $100,000 for the fight.

Gennady Golovkin defeated Lemieux via eighth-round technical knockout to unify his WBA, IBO, and WBC Interim middleweight titles with Lemieux's IBF title.

Gennady Golovkin established the pace with his jab while landing his power shots in between, keeping Lemieux off-balance the entire night.

Gennady Golovkin was badly staggered in the eighth, so the referee was forced to halt the bout.

Gennady Golovkin landed 280 of 549 punches thrown whilst Lemieux landed 89 of 335.

On 10 February 2016, it was announced that Gennady Golovkin would defend his IBF and WBA middleweight titles on HBO against IBF mandatory challenger Dominic Wade on 23 April at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

In front of a sellout crowd of 16,353, Gennady Golovkin successfully defended his middleweight titles with an early stoppage of Wade, his 22nd successive knockout.

On 18 May 2016, Alvarez vacated the WBC middleweight title, which resulted in Gennady Golovkin being immediately awarded the title by the WBC who officially recognized him as their middleweight champion.

On 8 July 2016, it was announced that Gennady Golovkin would defend his world middleweight titles against undefeated British IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook.

Gennady Golovkin came out aggressively, going as far as to buckle Brook's legs in the first round.

Gennady Golovkin was met with stiff resistance as Brook began to fire back, connecting multiple clean combinations on Golovkin, none of which were able to faze him.

Gennady Golovkin feels [my power], and after second round I understand that it's not boxing.

Gennady Golovkin caught me with a shot, and I was starting to settle into the fight, but I was seeing three or four of him, so it was hard to get through it.

Gennady Golovkin's shots were coming underneath, and I was frustrating him.

Team Gennady Golovkin spoke of fighting Billy Joe Saunders after the Jacobs fight which would be a middleweight unification fight for all the belts.

Gennady Golovkin tweeted the announcement whilst Jacobs uploaded a quick video on social media.

At the official weigh-in, a day before the fight, Gennady Golovkin tipped the scales at 159.6 lb, while Jacobs weighed 159.8 lb.

Jacobs recovered, but Gennady Golovkin controlled most of the middle rounds.

The last time Gennady Golovkin fought in his home country was in 2010.

Saunders tweeted on social media that although he didn't watch Gennady Golovkin's fight with Jacobs, he was ready to fight him.

Gennady Golovkin joined him in the ring during the announcement to help promote their upcoming bout.

Gennady Golovkin did make it clear that whilst Golovkin would still defend the WBC and IBO title, Alvarez would not pay their sanctioning fees.

Many observers felt that Gennady Golovkin had won a closely contested fight, and while a draw was justifiable, a card that wide in favor of Alvarez was inexcusable.

CompuBox stats showed that Gennady Golovkin was the busier of the two, landing 218 of 703 thrown, while Alvarez was more accurate, landing 169 of his 505 thrown.

Gennady Golovkin out punched Alvarez in 10 of the 12 rounds.

Alvarez stated he would next fight in May 2018, whereas Gennady Golovkin was open to fighting in December 2017.

On 27 April, the IBF agreed to sanction the bout as long as Gennady Golovkin would make a mandatory defence against Derevyanchenko by 3 August 2018.

On fight night, in front of 7,837 fans, Gennady Golovkin knocked Martirosyan out in round 2.

Gennady Golovkin applied pressure immediately backing Martirosyan against the ropes and landing his jab.

Gennady Golovkin landed a right uppercut followed by a body shot.

Gennady Golovkin then connected with nine power shots which were unanswered and eventually Martirosyan fell face first to the canvas.

Gennady Golovkin caught me a few times in the first round.

Gennady Golovkin declined the offer and De La Hoya stated there would be no rematch.

Big punches were landed by both fighters during the bout, with both Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin showing excellent chins.

Compubox Stats showed that Gennady Golovkin landed 234 of 879 punches thrown and Alvarez landed 202 of his 622 punches.

Gennady Golovkin praised DAZN's global vision and highlighted that as one of the key reasons he signed with them.

Gennady Golovkin wanted to close out the remainder of his career, not chasing titles, but to only fight the best and be the best middleweight.

On 16 April, Gennady Golovkin announced he would fight 35 year old Canadian boxer Steve Rolls on 8 June 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York at a catchweight of 164 pounds.

From round 1, Gennady Golovkin began closing the gap on Rolls and looked to hurt Rolls with body shots.

Round 2 was fought in similar fashion by Gennady Golovkin, who managed to land many clean shots.

Gennady Golovkin backed Rolls up against the ropes and began throwing with both hands.

Gennady Golovkin landed a shot to the temple on Rolls, the same shot he knocked out Marco Antonio Rubio, causing Rolls to cover up.

CompuBox statistics showed that Gennady Golovkin landed 62 of 223 punches thrown and Rolls landed 38 of his 175 thrown.

On 5 October 2019, Gennady Golovkin defeated Ukrainian Sergiy Derevyanchenko by unanimous decision for the vacant IBF and IBO middleweight titles at Madison Square Garden, New York.

In round two, Derevyanchenko began putting three and four punch combinations together behind a single and double jab, while Gennady Golovkin stuck to single punches, landing the occasional eye-catching hook.

Towards the end of the round, Gennady Golovkin opened a cut above Derevyanchenko's right eye.

Towards the end of the round Gennady Golovkin had some success with a couple of sharp hooks to the head and a right uppercut.

Gennady Golovkin was the aggressor for the majority of the fourth round, having partial success, with Derevyanchenko picking his moments to fire back with two and three punch combinations and continuing to work the body.

Gennady Golovkin, meanwhile, stuck with single hooks and probing jabs, landing a solid uppercut halfway through the round.

The sixth was an evenly fought round with both fighters landing several clean punches to the head, although Gennady Golovkin appeared to land the more significant blows which caught the attention of the crowd.

Rounds seven, eight and nine were much of the same, back and forth engagements with Gennady Golovkin seeming to land the more eye catching blows.

Gennady Golovkin had success in the last minute with left and right hooks landing on Derevyanchenko's head, only to see the Ukrainian answer with his own solid shots and back Gennady Golovkin up in the final 30 seconds of the round.

The eleventh and twelfth were closely contested, both fighters having success, with Gennady Golovkin again appearing to land the more catching punches in the twelfth and final round.

Gennady Golovkin faced mandatory IBF challenger Kamil Szeremeta on 18 December 2020.

Quickly establishing his powerful jab, Gennady Golovkin dropped Szeremeta to the canvas at the end of the first round from an uppercut followed by a left hand.

Gennady Golovkin scored another knockdown in round two from a right hand followed by two more knockdowns in rounds four and seven.

CompuBox statistics showed that Gennady Golovkin outlanded Szeremeta 228 to 59 and outlanded in jabs 94 to 10.

On 24 May 2022, it was announced that Gennady Golovkin would be moving up to compete in the super middleweight division for the first time in his career, to face Canelo Alvarez on 17 September at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada in a trilogy bout for the latter's undisputed super middleweight titles.

On 9 March 2023, Gennady Golovkin relinquished the WBA title after being ordered to face WBA champion Erislandy Lara.

Gennady Golovkin is known for his hard sparring sessions, in which he often sparred with much larger opponents.

Gennady Golovkin occasionally sparred with Canelo Alvarez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Imoesiri said Gennady Golovkin routinely dispatched heavyweights and hit harder than Povetkin.

Gennady Golovkin is humble and shy guy, like you see him now, and it's actually pretty pleasant to be around somebody like that, who's not just 'foam at the mouth' and trying to say who he's gonna kill next.

In 2006, Gennady Golovkin moved from his native Kazakhstan to Stuttgart, Germany, and then in 2013 to train with Abel Sanchez at Big Bear, California.

Gennady Golovkin and his wife Alina have a son who is in primary school, and a daughter who was born days before his first fight with Canelo Alvarez.

Gennady Golovkin said he wanted his son to attend school in California because his training camp, team and promotions are based in California, he has many friends there and he considers it a beautiful place.

Gennady Golovkin enjoys playing games with his son and spending time with his family.