By Dan Ambrose: IBF middleweight champion Sam Soliman thinks #3 WBA, #5 WBO Daniel Geale (30-2, 16 KO’s) has the kind of talent needed to pull off a huge upset this month in his title challenge against WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KO’s) on July 26th at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Soliman, who comes from Australia like Geale, believes that if he uses his speed along with his power, he can beat Golovkin in this fight.
So in other words, Geale will need to bring his A-game and fight the perfect fight for him to send the highly hyped Golovkin down crashing to his first defeat in front of a large HBO audience nationwide in the U.S on 7/26.
Soliman has a stake in this fight because he wants to fight the winner in a unification fight, and it’s quite possible he’ll get that match-up unless a big name like Miguel Cotto shows interest in taking on the winner.
“If we see the fast moving Geale and the hard punching Geale at his best then he can definitely win the fight,” Soliman said. “No fighter is invincible and Geale can be a brilliant boxer when he’s on top of his game. He can’t get careless because with Golovkin one punch and its lights out. Geale has to keep moving and not let Golovkin get a big shot at him.”
The idea is that Geale will need to hit and run for 12 rounds, and hope that Golovkin isn’t able to land enough telling blows to score a knockout or win a decision. The hit and run style of fighting might not be crowd-pleasing though, and the judges might not go for that kind of a fighting style given that Geale is the challenger and not the champion.
Except on rare occasions, a challenger needs to take the fight to the champion in order to take his belt. Geale’s hopping around, in and out style of fighting might work if he were the champion, but as a challenger, he’s going to need to actually mix it up and stay in the pocket a certain percentage of the time for him to have a chance of winning this fight.
“Geale does have the skills to turn it around,” Soliman said.
Geale has been sparring with middleweight contender Jarrold Fletcher and Dennis Hogan in preparing for the Golovkin fight. Sakio Bika, the WBC super middleweight champion, will also be working with Geale to help him get ready. Unfortunately none of those fighters are anything like Golovkin with their fighting style, and none of them have the kind of power that he has.
Comments are closed.