Golovkin confirms he feels comfortable at 168 pounds
Super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez will face Kazakh world champion Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin in a long-awaited trilogy that will take place on September 17 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Golkovkin is one of the few boxers who has been in only one division in his entire career, since he turned pro in 2006. However, he doesn’t see fighting at 168 pounds as a problem.
The Kazakh fighter is the current IBF middleweight champion at 160 pounds, but it is the first time that he will fight up at super middleweight as a pro, and he will do so against one of the world's pound-for-pound greats and only fighter to claim a win over him, “Canelo.”
“I feel absolutely comfortable. For me it’s just another fight, just another opponent. I’ve been asking myself, ‘do I feel different?’ The answer is no.’ I feel 100% comfortable even in a new weight division,” Golovkin said in an interview with the Boxingscene.com portal.
Golovkin is recognized for being a knockout artist from the beginning of his career, with a total of 84%. For him it is a challenge that he assumes with total security, although he acknowledges that he has prepared himself to prove what he is made of.
“We’ll see. We will be in a new situation. We have to prove ourselves. It’s hard for me to say right now because this will be my first time fighting at 168 pounds. We will prepare and do everything we can to be ready for the weight division, but there are no predictions,” he stated.
“I don’t know Canelo at 168. I know him at 160. There’s a reason this fight isn’t at 160. I learned something about him. He learned something about himself. Now we are going to try it at 168”, concluded Golovkin.
Alvarez and Golovkin have already shared an exciting 24 rounds in this hottest rivalry and the pair will square off for the third time.