By Allan Fox: Former IBF/WBA middleweight champion Daniel Geale (30-2, 16 KO’s) sees the fact that he’s a former world champion as being too much for WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KO’s) in their fight this month on July 26th at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Golovkin has never been in with a former world title holder before, and Geale thinks he’ll be too much of a step up in class for Golovkin to handle in this fight.
Geale captured the IBF 160lb title with a narrow 12 round split decision over German fighter Sebastian Sylvester in 2011. A year later, Geale won the WBA Super World middleweight title in beating Felix Sturm by a 12 round split decision in 2012 in Germany. So beating Sylvester and Sturm was what gave Geale his two titles. He also has a win over 38-year-old Anthony Mundine from 2013 in beating him by a narrow 12 round decision.
I believe I’ve got what it takes to beat him [Golovkin], I believe I’m hungrier now and I believe they’re taking me for granted. I love that position,” Geale said. “I’m the underdog. They’re looking past me already, looking for bigger fights for Golovkin. The guy has got power and has done everything asked from him in his other fights. But he hasn’t fought world champions, ex-world champions before. I’m very confident.”
In talking about himself as a former world champion, Geale needs to put his wins over Sylvester and Sturm in perspective. Neither of these guys were considered great world champions, especially Sylvester, who was retired by Gregorz Proksa in a 3-round blowout loss to him in October 2011.
Proksa is the same fighter that Golovkin toyed with in stopping in 5 rounds in 2012. With the way that Sylvester was taken apart by Proksa, it doesn’t make Geale’s win over Sylvester look all that special. Sturm was someone that Golovkin had been trying to get a fight against for years without success. Beating him wasn’t a big deal for Geale, because he wasn’t a great champion.
Sturm held onto his WBA title for a long time, but if you look at the poor opposition that he faced during all of those years, it seems pretty obvious why Sturm was able to keep his title for so long. He didn’t take any chances when making optional title defenses, and he lucked out with the WBA ranking less than spectacular fighters in their rankings while Sturm held their belt.
If Geale is going to beat Golovkin on July 26th, it won’t be because he previously held titles that he won off of Sebastian Sylvester and Felix Sturm, because those were obviously paper titles that he quickly lose either by vacating to avoid a difficult fight against Golovkin, in the case of his IBF title, or lost in getting beat by Darren Barker last year by a 12 round decision.
The main thing Geale has going for him in this fight is his mobility. He moves well around the ring, he’s hard to hit, and he’s good at stealing rounds with his in and out fighting style. But whether this kind of style is going to register with the judges if the fight goes to to the cards is the big question. It’s also questionable whether Geale will be able to keep away from Golovkin for the full 12 rounds to keep from getting knocked out. He’s going to need to avoid exchanges with Golovkin because it’ll be too dangerous for him to mix it up.
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