Will Gennady Golovkin get his turn?

What makes Gennady Golovkin one of the most avoided boxers?

“Just swerve Golovkin like the plague. He punches like a mule. I don’t need to be in with him. Dangerous fight,” Carl Froch said on the May 1st Facebook Q&A when asked if he would face Gennady Golovkin and the strategy he would use in that fight.

That coming from Froch is a surprise, given the fact that the Brit has arguably compiled the best resume the last half-decade. This indicates to fight fans how most boxers view the hard hitting Kazakhstani WBA middleweight champion.

Golovkin, or “Triple G” as he’s known in more parts, now faces his toughest test of his career against Daniel Geale on July 26 at Madison Square Garden, New York. Geale is a former world champion, winning the IBF and WBA titles in what can be seen as a very successful career.

Why is Golokvin one of the most avoided fights out there? It’s a pretty simple answer, and like Froch mentioned, his power is immense and it exists in both hands. Coming from a great amateur background, Golovkin has shown he can fight on the inside and outside as he showed against Curtis Stevens, and illustrated he is not just a headhunter but can effectively go to the body. His brutal liver body punch knockout against Matthew Macklin is just one example of this. GGG has a solid stiff jab as a good foundation to fire his artillery. He has a great ability to cut off the ring, making it difficult for his opponent to run around the ring, and therefore can pummel his opponent with his thumping power shots.

Although his punches possess immense levels of power, his cleanliness, timing and punch placement are some other attributes he adds to his list.  He provides an excessive amount of problems to his opponents but may not get the respect he deserves if he doesn’t fight the bigger names in boxing. His powerful displays have trembled others although there can be a further argument that Golovkin and his team need to push harder for the bigger fights, whether that be to call certain individuals out after a fight or make it known to the public the fighters that he wants to fight in the future. Another point to be made is that HBO should be forking out more money for Golovkin opponents in an effort to get somebody to step up.

The phrase “victim of one’s own success” springs to mind when thinking of Golovkin. He has truly worked his way up in the professional ranks and has not been offered titles, like how we are accustomed to see in the era of boxing we see nowadays. Before anyone had caught a sniff of this middleweight monster, he was abroad fighting in Germany and Ukraine before getting exposed on the US scene. His looming success ensued, with a sequence of knockouts and title wins. Now his success, or manner of success, have many taking the back foot when contemplating a fight with him.

Another factor that pushes other fighters away from Golovkin is due to the Kazakhstani being a high risk, low reward fighter to the upper echelon middleweights. While some of Golovkin’s opponents have gotten the ebst money of their career to face him, these have been guys that weren’t previously considered top ten middleweights, nor had many of these guys fought on a premium cable platform before.

GGG may not guarantee a big PPV pull on his own and therefore it is not a big money fight to take — yet.

Golovkin is in the big building on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions has put a lot of faith into his fighter by selling the venue on him being a top draw. How he does attendance-wise could go a long ways to determining if he gets that long overdue major fight.

Overall, GGG is one of the most avoided fighters on the planet and for this we say kudos to Daniel Geale for taking on such a fight.  Whilst Geale knows the risks involved in fighting this heavy hitter, there is hope that others will follow suit and challenge Gennady Golovkin as the king of the Middleweight division.

- Oun Abbas Hussain / @ouney86

- UK correspondent for www.BehindTheGloves.com