(Photo credit: Will Hart) By Allan Fox: WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KOs) may be defending his title on Saturday night against ex-IBF/WBA champion Daniel Geale (30-2, 16 KOs), but he’s thinking a lot about unifying the middleweight title against the other middleweight champions in the division right now. Golovkin and Geale will be fighting at Madison Square Garden in New York in a fight that will be televised by HBO.

Geale is just a regular title defense and little more for him. Golovkin is taking the fight seriously, but he’s not making more of it than he normally would. Geale is a good fighter with a difficult style, but he’s also a lighter puncher that was beaten recently by Darren Barker and who barely got past Felix Sturm.

“This is a very important fight for me to fight in the big arena at Madison Square Garden,” Golovkin said. “I’m really looking forward to it. Daniel Geale is a great fighter, he throws a lot of punches and has a different style being from Australia. I saw the Barker fight and know what a very good body puncher he is. I love Madison Square Garden and love coming to New York City. Right now my focus is on 160 and unifying the titles.”

Geale’s fighting style isn’t different from a lot of styles used around the world by fighters. It isn’t exclusively an Australian fighting style. He likes to stay on the outside and move around to pick his spots to come forward to throw his shots. The thing with Geale’s style is that it requires timing in order to land shots when he decides he’s going to come within punching range.

Geale uses feints to get his opponents to commit before he throws his shots. But Geale also likes to throw a lot of body shots. That’s something he’s either going to need to abandon for this fight or use sparingly because he’s not going to be able to throw a lot of body shots without leaving himself open to getting nailed by Golovkin. The more body shots Geale throws the more danger he puts himself in.

If Golovkin can get past Geale on Saturday, he has the option of fighting IBF middleweight champion Sam Soliman from Australia for later this year. Soliman wants the fight. WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto is an option depending on whether he and his promoter Bob Arum want to take the risk. WBO champion Peter Quillin is a fight that can happen if they can work out the HBO vs. Showtime angle. Golovkin fights for HBO, while Quillin fights on Showtime.