By Jeff Aranow: Gennady Golovkin weighed in at 163 pounds for his scheduled 12 round fight against Steve Rolls this Saturday night on DAZN at Madison Square Garden in New York. The fight has a catch-weight limit of 164 pounds. The undefeated Rolls (19-0, 10 KOs) weighed in at 163.8 pounds.
GGG looks considerably trimmer than he has in recent fights, even though his weight is higher. He looks well rested.
There was only a small crowd in attendance to watch Friday’s GGG-Rolls weigh-in, which isn’t that surprising. The interest in this fight is low with boxing fans considering that many of never heard of the 35-year-old Canadian Rolls before. This is a guy that was dug up by Golovkin’s management for him to fight in a confidence booster type of fight. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler says all the big name fighters weren’t available in June to face GGG.
DAZN liked the idea that Rolls is from Canada, as they want to try and increase the subscribers from that country. However, Rolls isn’t popular even in his home country of Canada, so this could be a big waste of time for DAZN. With the huge money that Golovkin is making for the fight, he’s not complaining that he’s fighting Rolls. Things haven’t been going well for GGG.
Rolls is coming into the fight as a real long shot to win. He appears to have good punching power, but his experience is too limited for him to be taken seriously. This is a fighter that has been picked out of the hat by Golovkin’s management to face him on Saturday.
Golovkin could face Canelo next in September
GGG’s fight this Saturday night against Rolls has a lot at stake. If Golovkin wins impressively, he’ll increase his chances of a trilogy fight with Saul Canelo Alvarez in September. A loss to Rolls, potentially any chance of Golovkin ever facing Canelo again. GGG needs to dominate Rolls to have a good shot at getting the Alvarez fight. Since this is a poor opponent that Golovkin is fighting Saturday, he needs to destroy him to improve his chances of getting the Canelo fight.
“If he’s able to beat Steve Rolls on Saturday night, hopefully we’ll get the third fight with Canelo,” said Loeffler to ESPN.com. “That’s what the fans are looking forward to. DAZN signed Canelo for big fights. They signed GGG for big fights, and a third fight with GGG and Canelo is one of the biggest fights you can make in boxing.”
Golden Boy Promotions have’t given any indication whether they’re going to make the fight between Canelo and Golovkin in September. GGG and Loeffler are talking up the fight with Canelo, but Golden Boy hasn’t said a word about whether they’ll make the fight.
Golovkin and Loeffler made a mistake in choosing Rolls as the opponent. If this all GGG could get, he should have canceled the date, and waited until they found a good opponent for him to fight.
Other weights on the card
Ali Akhmedov 167.4 vs. Marcus McDaniel 168
Brian Ceballo 147.6 vs. Bakhtiyar Eyubov 148
Israil Madrimov 153.2 vs. Norberto Gonzalez 152.8
Charles Conwell 153.4 vs. Courtney Pennington 152
Nikita Ababiy 162.6 3vs. Juan Barajas 157.2
Johnathan Arroyo 146.2 vs. Jordan Morales 146
