Gennadiy Golovkin: I’m Mature, More Wiser Since 2018 Canelo Fight

The sand in the hourglass of Gennadiy Golovkin’s career is inching toward completion.

The 40-year-old Kazakh knockout artist is preparing for a trilogy fight with Canelo Alvarez on September 17 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on DAZN pay-per-view.

What is uncertain is how much more of a fight Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) will have to go on.

Golovkin is aware that his fighting days are almost over.

He is also aware that his age, 44 fights and 24 rounds against Álvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) give him an edge in finally getting a victory against the Mexican star.

“I have matured. I have become wiser. Many things have changed in life and in boxing. During that time, I learned to look at boxing and other situations with open eyes. Not following the stories that some people tried to tell me,” Golovkin told BoxingScene.com and other reporters.

“A lot of things have changed. We’ve all lived through the pandemic. The pandemic taught us how to wait. How to be patient. We even learned how to lose in life. Boxing stayed the same.”

Undisputed super middleweight champion Alvarez joked during the third fight promo that he’s really enjoyed seeing Golovkin get older and fight inferior opponents, all while hoping he gives Triple G another shot at a weight class. completely new.

Golovkin said he’s not bothered by Alvarez’s approach.

“I haven’t thought about [if he waited for me to get old to fight for the third time]. If there were other reasons for him not to fight when we were supposed to fight, I think you better ask him,” Golovkin said.

Many now predict that Golovkin has aged (he got off to a slow start before knocking out Ryota Murata in April) that he will be more susceptible to a beating, although it can be argued that he won both fights against Alvarez.

Golovkin outscored Alvarez 218-169 in the first fight in 2017 (a split draw) and also outscored his arch-rival 234-202 in the 2018 rematch, but suffered a majority decision loss.

Golovkin leaned on a devastating jab in both fights.

“My strategy remains the same. You have to box, and that strategy works. So nothing will change,” Golovkin said.

“I don’t think that’s the right way to put it, trying to get a knockout. You are always putting your best effort and 100% into the fight.”

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and television reporter. He is also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, by email at manouk[dot]collect[at]gmail.com or at www.ManoukAkopyan.com.