Gennadiy Golovkin will go down as one of the legends of the middleweight division, but his entire career may not have happened if not for one thoughtless sacrifice.
Gennadiy Golovkin is best known for his trilogy with Canelo Alvarez, in which the first two fights sparked much controversy as Golovkin and Canelo fought to a draw the first time, and Canelo won the second.
Golovkin has proven himself to be a brutal force to be reckoned with, and ‘GGG’ has one of the best amateur careers of any fighter, with a record of 345-5.
All of this, however, is down to his brother.
Gennadiy Golovkin’s brother gave up Olympic dream for his twin
Golovkin told Sky that the Kazakhstan national team required just one middleweight for the Athens Olympics, and that his brother, despite being a better boxer, urged Gennadiy to go for it:
“Just before the Olympic Games he said ‘okay, maybe you try first’.”
Golovkin’s trainer, Abel Sanchez, said: “They decided that, because Gennady was 15 minutes older, Max would stay home.”
Max sacrificed his chance of Olympic honors for his brother, despite, in Golovkin’s words, being the more talented of the two:
“I think, for him, it would have been a much better chance than for me. He was more focused on boxing, he had a much better style than me.”
Gennadiy, who had to dig deep against Sergiy Derevyanchenko, walked away from Athens with a silver medal. His pro record stands at 42 wins and 2 losses, both coming at the hands of Canelo, who will face Terence Crawford later this year.
Golovkin recently saved Olympic boxing from the chopping block ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles games, giving the story a true fairytale ending.
Gennadiy Golovkin beat Joseph Parker’s trainer and Tyson Fury’s cousin in amateurs
Golovkin began his pro career after a stellar amateur run, and in 2003, in the AIBA World Championship preliminaries, beat Joseph Parker‘s trainer, and cousin of Tyson Fury – Andy Lee.
Andy Lee lost the bout in a unanimous decision in Bangkok and Golovkin handed him one of his 11 amateur losses.
Lee turned professional with an amateur record of 35-11 and ended his pro career with a record of 35-3-1. Lee became world champion against Matvey Korobov in 2014.