No fighter likes getting hit by anyone, no matter how much clout they carry. But when sharing the ring with Kazakhstan wrecking machine Gennady Golovkin, it’s a completely different ball game. Or as former victim Martin Murray says: “torture”.
Murray, who put in a spirited performance before being chopped down in 11 by ‘GGG’ in February, filled in Boxing News with ‘how it feels’.
On Golovkin’s power:
“He hits hard, the hardest I’ve ever been hit, but I was expecting more,” Murray said. “I don’t know if that was because how anticipated he was, because I was thinking all kinds leading up to this fight, mentally preparing myself for torture. Which it was to be fair. But I was mentally preparing myself for being hit a lot harder. So when he did hit me – hard, strong, thudding – it came as a nice surprise.”
A nice surprise? Murray really is as tough as he looks! Moving on to Golovkin’s technique, style, and why the man’s so formidable:
“He’s just good at everything,” Murray explained. “Obviously he punches hard. He takes a shot well. He’s quite sneaky defensively as well but what surprised me most about Golovkin was the variety of his shots. The way he opened me up. We worked a lot on his left hook to the body, cancelling that out. He never landed it once, we worked that much on it.”
And finally on how to beat boxing’s nightmarish boogeyman:
“If you want to beat Golovkin you’ve got to stay in the centre of the ring and push him back. The thing about him, he’s a good all-rounder. Everything he does, he does well and does world class. That’s what makes him special. Like I said what surprised me about him was his variety.”
According to Martin Murray, it’s not just the power of ‘GGG’ that makes him such a threat in boxing. It’s a variety of ring smarts and unpredictability that make him such a pro game standout and hot ticket for fight fans.
David Lemieux will now be the next man to get a taste of what Kazakhstan’s most dangerous export brings to a fight. Will Lemieux be the next man to fall on October 17th, or will the unbeaten Golovkin be the one who is finally humbled? Check out our Golovkin vs Lemieux Extended Tale of the Tape if you haven’t already.
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