30 Aspiring Facts That Every Fan Should Know About Gennady Golovkin

18 June 2019, 4:37 pm EDT By Ruby Karnick

Gennady Golovkin, world famous by his nickname "GGG" or "Triple G," is known for his exceptionally powerful and precise punching, balance, and methodical movement inside the ring. Here are some very interesting facts about the professional boxer:

Often referred as Triple G, God of War, and Golden Boy, is a Kazakhstani professional boxer with over 350 amateur and 40 professional fights under his belt.
He was born Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin on April 8, 1982, in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, to a Korean mother, Elizaveta Golovkina and a Russian father, Gennady Golovkin. He had two older brothers, Sergey and Vadim and a twin, Max.
His brothers were his first fight promoters. They would pick fights with older guys’ right from his kindergarten days, with different guy every day.
A great fan of Sugar Ray Leonard he was inspired by his older brothers to foray into boxing when he was eight years old. He adopted some of the style and technique of Leonard, Marvin Hagler, and Mike Tyson.
Golovkin lost both his older brothers who were enlisted in the Soviet Army. They family was informed of Vadim’s death in 1990 and that of Sergey in 1994, without any explanation.
He first learnt his tricks at gym in Maikuduk, Karaganda, and grew up as a boxer under his first Coach Victor Dmitriev, who remembers him as Gena, the hardworking and determined kid with more than just a raw talent.
Golovkin won his first International medal at the ‘2000 Junior World Championship’ in Budapest defeating Maikel Perez of Cuba, in Light Welterweight for the gold medal. He was inducted into the Olympic Solidarity program since then.
On October 13, 2002, at Masan Gymnasium, Masan, South Korea, Golovkin won the Asian Games boxing gold medal defeating Suriya Prasathinphimai of Thailand by technical knockout in the final.
At the 2003 World Amateur Boxing Championship. He won the gold in Middleweight category defeating Oleg Mashkin of Ukraine. On the way to the finals, he defeated Matvey Korobov, Andy Lee, Lucian Bute, and Yordanis Despaigne.
In January 2004, participating in the Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in Philippines, he won the gold medal defeating Christopher Camat of home country and qualified for the Olympics.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, he won silver medal losing to the Russian Gaydarbek Gaydarbehov, 18-28. He defeated Ramadan Yasser of Egypt and Andre Dirrell of USA, en-route to the finals.
Surprisingly Golovkin lost the bronze medal bout against Mohammed Hikal of Egypt in Middleweight category at the ‘2005 World Championship’ and ended his amateur career demonstrating excellent performance with a record 345-5.
He embarked on a professional career with Universum Box-Promotion making his debut in May 2006, against Gabor Balogh of Hungary and won by knockout to register his first win.
Golovkin terminated his contracted with Universum as on January 2010, for he felt his professional career was not in their best interest and they have always placed me behind Felix Sturm and Sebastian Zbik. The Universum also started to run into financial issues.
On August 14, 2010, as a world ranked # 1, Golovkin won the World Boxing Association interim middleweight title, routing Milton Nunez in 58 seconds. He was later upgraded to WBA Regular champion.
On December 16, 2010, he knocked out Nilson Julio Tapia of Colombia, in the third round to register his 20th win of career and his record stood at 20-0.
With a view to fight in United States, he tied up withK2 and trained under Abel Sanchez, who added Mexican-style aggression to Golovkin’s Eastern European-style amateur discipline to produce a hybrid champion.
He made his American debut against ‘The Ring’s # 10 rated middleweight Grzegorz Proksa, on September 1, 2012. He battered Proksa to hand him his first loss with a fifth round technical knockout to retain WBA and IBO middleweight title.
Japan’s pro-boxer Nobuhiro Ishida, a former WBA interim super welterweight champion, faced his career’s first knockout on March 30, 2013. Golovkin closed the fight in the third round with a vicious overhead right for the referee to stop the fight.
Golovkin next faced Matthew Macklinon June 29, 2013, at Connecticut, in United States, as one of the toughest opponents as on then. Macklin survived the first round but was knocked out in the third round when Golovkin landed a right uppercut followed by a left hook to retain both WBO and IBO title.

His breathtaking fight with American pro and The Ring’s #9-rated middleweight Curtis Stevens was held on November 2, 2013, at ‘The Theatre at Madison Square Garden,’ New York City. Golovkin won his 15th straight stoppage victory with a technical knockout in the 8th round.
He succeeded in retaining WBA and IBO middleweight title against Ghanaian professional boxer Osumanu Adams on February 1, 2014 and thereafter on June 3, 2014 he was officially elevated by WBA to his present status of WBA Super Champion.
On October 18, 2014, in his 31 pro fights he took on the then Interim WBC champion, Marco Antonio Rubio, of Mexico. He knocked out Rubio with overhand power left to the head in the second round to retain WBA ‘Super,’ IBO middleweight title and won the Interim WBC title.
In 2006, Golovkin moved from his native Kazakhstan to Stuttgart, Germany, and then in late 2014 to Santa Monica, California. He speaks four languages, Kazakh, Russian, German, and English.
His title defense against Martin Murray in Mote Carlo on February 21, 2015, was his 13th consecutive successful title defense, placing him all-time third in title defense.
Golovkin defeated Lemieux via eighth round technical knockout to unify his WBA-Super, IBO, and WBC Interim middleweight titles with Lemieux’s IBF title. With this 21 consecutive knockout victory, Golovkin passed Monzon for most consecutive middleweight title defense with 15.
He went on to defeat Dominic Wade and Kell Brook before taking on Daniel Jacobs on March 18, 2017. This was the first time that Golovkin fought 12 rounds in his professional career to earn a unanimous decision victory, ending his 23 fight knockout streak.
On September 16, 2017, in the bout against Canelo Alvarez of Mexico, he fought to a split decision to experience his first draw. The fight drew the third highest gate in boxing history.
A rematch with Canelo Alvarez was scheduled on September 15, 2018, in T-Mobile Arena, Paradise, Nevada, U.S. In front of sellout crowd of 21,965, Golovkin faced his first defeat via majority decision after 12 rounds. The result was disputed by fans, pundits and media.
He is married to Alina and is blessed with a son, Vadim who is currently attending primary school. His favorite food is beef.