It's rare for HBO to showcase fights between two European fighters though this coming Saturday HBO do just that as they show the WBA Middleweight title fight between Kazakhstan's hard punching phenom Gennady Golovkin (23-0, 20) and Poland's exciting Grzegorz Proksa (28-1, 21).
The champion (Golovkin) will go into this bout as a clear favourite (around 1/3 with the sports books) though on paper this will be his toughest fight as a professional having had an exceptional amateur career. As an amateur Golovkin was special. He was a 1 time World Junior Championships (2000), 1 time Asian Games Champion (2002), 1 time World Amateur Champion (2003), 1 time Olympic Silver Medal winner (2004) and a 2 time medal winner in the Boxing World cup (Silver-2002, Bronze-2005). As an amateur he scored notable victories over Matvey Korobov, Andy Lee, Lucien Bute, Yordanis Despaigne and Andre Dirrell further proving his credentials prior to turning professional.
After his excellent days as an amateur Golovkin finally turned professional in 2006 and swiftly advanced his record with 7 wins inside a year (all by T/KO). His first notable victory came in his 8th bout as his T/KO streak continued and he took out the well regarded Belorussian Siarhei Khomitski in the 5th round. His stoppage streak just a fight later as Frenchman Mehdi Bouadla took him the 8 round distance. Golovkin was taken the distance again just 2 fights later, this time by the experienced Ian Gardner who again survived the 8 round schedule. Golovkin was taken the schedule for the 3rd (and final) time 2 fights later as Amar Amari again survived the 8 round distance.
Since defeating Amari in July 2008 Golovkin's power has been the key with him scoring 10 straight by T/KO to move his record to an excellent 23-0 (20) whilst also claiming the WBA Middleweight title, a title he has now defended 4 times since winning it back in August 2010. He first won the belt by swiftly disposing of Colombian Milton Nunez before defending against another Colombian in the form of Nilson Julio Tapia. Following the defense over Tapia, Golovkin has made defenses over veterans Kassim Ouma and Lujuan Simon as well as the over matched Japanese challenge Makoto Fuchigami.
Despite having an excellent amateur pedigree and fantastic skills with seriously heavy hands and technical proficiency Golovkin has had issues. The most obvious issue is that Golovkin hasn't yet fought anyone worth mentioning. His best wins so far have been over Simon-who had been out of the ring for over a year and Ouma-who was old and 2-5 in his previous 7 bouts. Whilst this has been put down to promotional difficulties Golovkin's last fight, promoted by the Klitschko's K2 East was against the awful Makoto Fuchigamai an inexcusable bout. As well as the poor quality of opposition Golovkin faced, he has also not been featured on mainstream US TV before meaning that, outside of the hardcore fan base, very few actually know about him, despite his skill set and amateur exploits.
Despite being a solid former amateur and European Golovkin's style really isn't that "European", he doesn't use a solid technical jab to control the range and pace of the fight but instead looks to use his defensive skills to land powerful counter punches. Although he can brawl (as he did against Ouma) he's at his best when he walks down an opponent behind his guard whilst looking to land his dynamite power on an over-committed opponent with a deadly counter. When he lands those counters opponents know about it.
Originally Golovkin's opponent was supposed to be the current WBO Middleweight champion Dmitry Pirog, though Pirog unfortunately suffered an injury and was replaced by British based Pole Grzegorz Proksa. Whilst Proksa, like Golovkin, is only really known by the hardcore boxing community he has had a number of fights televised in the UK, including his latest two bouts with Welshman Kerry Hope.
Proksa has been a professional since 2005 and actually debuted in the US scoring an opening round stoppage over Adam Capo before adding 3 more wins before the end of the year to move to 4-0 (3) fighting between the US and the UK. Inside a year of being professional Proksa would claim his first professional titles winning both the IBF Youth Middleweight title and the WBC Youth World Middleweight title in just his 6th bout.
Despite winning a number of titles Proksa had faced no one of note in his first 23 bouts, often taking out journeymen like Alex Spitko or Lee Noble, however a victory over Tyan Booth had seen Proksa claiming the European Union Middleweight title in February 2010. It wasn't until fight #23 that Proksa first faced a recognised opponent in the form of Spaniard Pablo Navascues. Navascues managed to survive until round 9 before laid out by a Proksa left hand up close that forced the referee to wave off the bout. Just two bouts later Proksa really put his name on the map as he dominated former world champion Sebastian Sylvester who retired at the end of the 3rd round thoroughly beaten.
Looking on the verge of a world title fight Proksa was given a chance to show his talent in front of an excited British crowd live on Sky Sports against Welshman Kerry Hope. On paper the bout was a complete mismatch in favour of the then unbeaten Proksa, though, after a bright start Proksa started to look more and more ragged and was narrowly out pointed by Hope in one of the British upsets of 2012. The two rematched a few months later and this time a determined Proksa dominated Hope before scoring an 8th round stoppage over the Welshman and gained his revenge. The rematch over Hope was the most recent bout for Proksa who whilst not looking tremendous did look better than in his previous bout with Hope.
Like Golovkin, Proksa doesn't have a "European" style, in fact Proksa's style is very loose with his hands by his waist as he relies on reflexes and speed. He's fun to watch and whilst defensively poor he's usually got the skills and natural speed to get away with his low guard. Whilst he has showed excellent movement and shot selection (notably against Sylvester) he can get ragged and wild, especially in the later rounds as he starts to show his tiredness, as he did against Hope the first time around.
On paper this appears to be a noticeable step up for both men, and with it happening on HBO it gives hardcore boxing fans a chance to see both men with the winner having a chance to move into another major fight next year (with the winner of the Sergio Martinez v Julio Cesar Chavez Jr being a possible opponent). Golovkin is rightfully the favourite, the Ouma fight aside he has looked exceptional and whilst not hugely active he is incredibly powerful and accurate. He takes advantage of opponents when they make mistakes and rather fortunately for him Proksa makes a lot of mistakes especially when he's getting tired. Whilst Proksa has the activity to win a number of the early rounds he will have to seriously think twice about having low hands against Golovkin who will take advantage of them. Unless Proksa has spent the last few months on his stamina I'd be shocked if he manages to hear the final bell.
Prediction-Golovkin TKO7
Note-This fight will on the same day as the WBA "super" and IBF middleweight titles are unified as Felix Sturm faces Australian Daniel Geale.
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