Gennadiy Golovkin Profile

Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin is a Kazakhstani boxer who is a two-time middleweight champion and the current IBF and IBO titleholder at 160-pounds.

"GGG" previously held the WBA, WBC, IBF and IBO titles and was rated as Ring Magazine's number one Pound for Pound boxer from 2017 to 2018.

He is best known for being a central protagonist in two huge pay-per-view attractions in Las Vegas against bitter rival Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.

After a highly controversial draw to Canelo in 2017, Golovkin tasted his first defeat to Canelo in their highly anticipated rematch 12 months later on Mexican Independence Weekend.

It brought an end to Golovkin's record-equalling defences as world champion at 160-pounds alongside Bernard Hopkins at 21. After broadcasting giant HBO decided to drop boxing, Golovkin became a free agent and decided he would join OTT streaming service company DAZN.

He signed a six-fight, $100million deal at the age of 36 and stopped Steve Rolls in his first fight under the DAZN banner in 2019. Golovkin became a two-time world champion with victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko in October 2019, which was his second bout as a DAZN fighter.

The crowd-pleasing Kazakh has yet to formally announce his next opponent but is eyeing up a trilogy bout against Canelo.

Eddie Hearn agreed a two-fight deal to promote the Mexican in 2021 and also works with GGG so a third instalment is a strong possibility later this year.

Both fighters are working with streaming service DAZN which could also force the third fight.

Since defeat to Canelo, GGG has racked up wins over Rolls, Derevyanchenko and Kamil Szeremeta. DAZN have the exclusive rights to the remainder of Golovkin's career and have three fights left on the deal.

The boxing world got the fight they wanted when Canelo agreed to fight Golovkin in September 2017. Golovkin held the WBC, WBA, IBF and IBO champion while Alvarez was acknowledged as the Ring Magazine and lineal middleweight champion by virtue of his 2015 win over Miguel Cotto.

The pair were widely acknowledged as the two best active fighters in the world going in and the sold out T-Mobile crowd in Las Vegas witnessed a classic, with GGG stalking behind the stiffest jab in the division and his Mexican nemesis waiting for gaps to counter with crisp combinations.

Ringside observers not connected to Golden Boy were of the opinion that Golovkin had won and some even branded it a robbery after hearing the scorecards.

Adelaide Byrd somehow only awarded Golovkin two of the 12 rounds in what looked an incomprehensible 118-110 card for Canelo. Dave Moretti scored it 115-113 for Golovkin while Don Trella gave it 114-114 to ensure a split draw.

A rematch was inevitable, and the pair met again at the same venue in September 2018 after their original meeting on Cinco de Mayo weekend was cancelled because of Canelo failing a drugs test.

Going into the fight, Golovkin branded Canelo a cheater and refused to give him any respect following his six-month ban for testing positive to a banned substance. It was another fabulous-yet-exhausting fight, with the pair seemingly immune to each other's concussive power.

It went the distance again after the pair stood toe-to-toe and when the dust settled, 36-year-old Golovkin's eight-year reign as middleweight champion was over, with Canelo edging the scorecards (114-114, 115-113 and 115-113) in a fight that was as intense as it was classy.

Golovkin is regarded as one of the all time greats at middleweight alongside "Marvelous' Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Robinson, Carlos Monzon and Harry Greb.

During one stretch of his destructive career, GGG reeled off 23 consecutive knockouts. Golovkin has always promised to deliver a "Big Drama Show" and for most of his career he has been as good as his word.

British trio Martin Murray, Matthew Macklin and Kell Brook felt the wrath of his punching power in his prime. Brook agreed to fight Golovkin after negotiations with Chris Eubank Jr. collapsed.

Going into the contest both men were undefeated although many of the boxing cognoscenti questioned the wisdom of him jumping up to middleweight to fight the terror possessed by Golovkin. Their fears were confirmed on the night, with Brook sustaining a terrible beating at the O2 Arena.

After an even opening round Golovkin went through the gears, walking through 'Special K' to score a fifth round TKO win after Brook's corner threw in the towel. Former IBF welterweight champion Brook sustained a broken eye socket in the process.

In March 2017 Golovkin turned in another fabulous performance during a high-quality affair with Daniel Jacobs at Madison Square Garden.

Like a dog with a bone, the impressive American kept with the pace of Golovkin until the final bell to snap Golovkin's proud 23-fight KO streak. In a closely fought contest GGG got his hand raised to unify the middleweight division in New York.

A couple of years prior to their scrap in the Big Apple, when holding just the WBA middleweight title, Golovkin beat down a brave but over-matched Curtis Stevens.

This was prime GGG in 2013 and the highlight reel moment of the fight happened in round two when Golovkin slammed home a crushing left hook that crumpled Stevens to the canvas.

The expression on the Brownsville fighter's face - a mixture of pain and disbelief - became an overnight meme sensation on the internet.

His last fight against Derevyanchenko was a fight-of-the-year candidate for 2019 and rather surprisingly turned into one of the hardest of GGG's career.

Much like the Canelo cards, this will be a result debated in bars and offices for years to come. Scores of 115-112 (twice) and 114-113 for Golovkin failed to tell the full picture, as Golovkin appeared fatigued and hurt from the body shots received from Derevyanchenko late on.

However, his opening round knockdown was enough to edge the bout on the scorecards.

Golovkin has fought most of his career under 160-pounds after turning professional in 2006 in Dusseldorf, Germany. All his world title fights have been at middleweight, including bouts against Canelo, Jacobs, Brook and Derevyanchenko.

His only fight where he has fought above the middleweight limit was against Rolls in 2019. It was his first bout in 12 months after defeat to Canelo and they met at a catchweight of 164-pounds.

Ominously Golovkin looked haggard at the weigh-in for his lfight against Derevyanchenko, eventually coming in at 159.2 lbs which has sparked rumours of Golovkin moving up to 168-pounds to face Canelo next year.

As it stands, Golovkin has no intentions of moving up as he prepares to defend his IBF middleweight title in 2021.

Tom Loeffler is the man responsible for building GGG as a star attraction in the US. Loeffler had close ties with HBO but since striking a lucrative deal with DAZN, Hearn has taken over from Loeffler as Golovkin's co-promoter alongside the Kazakh's own promotional company GGG Promotions.

Golovkin has agreed to work alongside Matchroom USA for future fights which could help secure the trilogy bout with Canelo, a unification bout against Demetrius Andrade or WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders.

In 2019, Golovkin confirmed he had split from long-term trainer Abel Sanchez with Johnathon Banks replacing him.

Golovkin's home is DAZN worldwide and is set to remain at the streaming service platform until he retires with three fights remaining on his six-fight deal signed in 2019.

His last fight against Derevyanchenko featured on Sky Sports in the UK while his rematch with Canelo was picked up by BT Sports Box Office. Golovkin has also previously fought on Showtime and BoxNation. 

According to Forbes, Golovkin earned $25.5million in 2019. Both of his fights with Canelo generated more than one million PPV buys in America while his brutal victory over Brook sold 784,000 PPVs in the UK.

Golovkin also has lucrative sponsorship deals with Hublot, Nike, Tecate and Chivas Regal and according to Celebrity Net Worth, Golovkin had a net worth of $30million although this was before he fought twice under the DAZN banner, where his purse was $15million for each fight.

Golovkin keeps his family and his boxing life separate. He has a twin brother Maxim, who is a former amateur boxer whilst also having two elder brothers in Sergey and Vadim, who joined the Soviet Army.

They are believed to have encouraged Golovkin into becoming a boxer. In 1990, Golovkin was informed Vadim had been killed before being told Sergey had also died in 1994 by the government.

The boxer was born to a Russian coal miner father and a mother who was born in Korea. Golovkin is married to Alina, who is also his manager. Together, they have two children called; a daughter and son, the latter named Vadim in tribute to his late brother.

Golovkin ended his amateur career with a stunning 345-5 log. As a child his brothers would encourage him to fight children and men much older and bigger than him on the streets.

He began boxing in amateur contests as a raw 11-year-old in his homeland but by 2003 was good enough to land gold at the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Bangkok.

In that tournament, he beat future pro world champions Andy Lee, Lucian Bute and Matt Korobov. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens he beat Ramadan Yasser Abdelghafar and then eased past hot US prospect Andre Dirrell 23-18.

He would lose 28-18 to Russia's Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov and was forced to settle for a silver medal before finding fame and fortune on the professional circuit.