He taps his right index finger on his chin and smiles, pointing out to someone that his face his still clean. There are no marks, no leftover residue from ring wars that come with those tiny dotted skin imprints from stitches.
Anyone that’s seen the Kazakhstan expatriate the last three years in the U.S. destroy opponent after opponent may differ. The undefeated 33-year-old with the glistening smooth skin and genial disposition is about to be-come the face of boxing, especially if the WBA’s “super” middleweight champion disposes of Canadian power puncher David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs), the IBF titlist, like he has everyone else, when they meet in a middle-weight unification bout on HBO pay-per-view this Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York.
This is supposed to be the biggest test for Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs), who’s been avoided by the likes of Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez and what seems like anyone else around 160 pounds.
Still, in some boxing circles, Golovkin needs to do more to gain any crossover mainstream traction. Devouring Lemieux would help considerably.
There is a confident manner in which GGG walks around. That’s because he can.
“My hands are like guns. I hit you, you go down,” says Golovkin, and even those words spill from his mouth in an almost childlike, sing-song way. “People used to try to beat me up when I was young because I have baby face. I showed them I am tough, like I’ll show [Lemieux].”
This will be GGG’s first true showcase. His overwhelming power has led to 20-straight stoppages, and he cur-rently holds the highest knockout percentage (91 percent) of any middleweight titlist in boxing history.
But Abel Sanchez, who has trained Golovkin for five years, broached an interesting point about his fighter.
“I think it’s important to point out that the HBO CompuBox system rates Gennady as the third-best defensive fighter in title fights, so when it comes to defense, I think Gennady is adept at it,” Sanchez said. “In David Lemieux, we have a very strong puncher in front of us, who is aggressive and comes forward. We’ll be ready for anything David brings.”
What fans love, and why they’re attracted to GGG, is the electricity his hands possess, and the torque he’s able to generate with his body when he throws a power punch. He’s knocked down opponents with jabs, as opposed to Lemieux, who uses more clubbing-type hooks.
“He’s a great puncher, but I know my power, too,” Golovkin said. “My power is in a different class.”
The next step for Tom Loeffler, GGG’s promoter, is to get the message out ever louder that boxing will go on without Floyd Mayweather. “Money” said he was retiring after attracting an estimated 500,000-550,000 PPV buys for his lopsided destruction of Andre Berto on Sept. 12 -- Mayweather’s lowest total since he drew 325,000 buys versus Carlos Baldomir on HBO PPV in 2006.
The kicker is that early published estimates show Golovkin-Lemieux attracting roughly that amount. The Apple Watch commercial featuring Golovkin certainly helps his marketability, but many, other than fight fans, knew who he was.
Stopping Lemieux as handily as he chewed up Willie Monroe Jr. in the spring may enhance his brand, some-what, but it won’t be until he fights someone that already possesses crossover appeal that will allow GGG to cross over himself.
“This is a very marketable fight and the chemistry of the promotion has taken this to a whole completely differ-ent level,” Loeffler contested. “GGG couldn’t be in a better situation. It really is a perfect storm of rare ability inside the ring, an exciting style and likability outside the ring.”
It seems this is just the preliminary for the real storm about to hit next year, if GGG does what he’s supposed to against Lemieux, and Alvarez does his part next month against Cotto.
If the favorites hold true, next year could bring a Hagler-Hearns level event for the baby-faced fighter from Kazakhstan to test his meanness again.
Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writ-er's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing cover-age. His archive can be found here.