By Kenneth Friedman: Gennadiy Golovkin has started a rigorous 10-day training session at the SNAC facility to get in top shape for his first title defense of his IBF middleweight belt in late March, according to Steve Kim at ESPN.
Golovkin has done a lot of high altitude training at Big Bear, California. Some feel that this is a waste of time to train in the mountains. GGG has looked tired in his recent fights against Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Steve Rolls and Canelo Alvarez.
GGG looking tired after making weight
Golovkin has looked drained after making weight for his fights in the last 3 years. Some people believe Golovkin should move up to 168 so that he doesn’t have to struggle to make weight, and he can find more badly needed energy. Even in Golovkin’s 164-lb catchweight fight against Steve Rolls last June, he looked drained. Not as much as before, but still tired looking.
The SNAC facility is run by Victor Conte in San Carlos, California in the Bay Area. Well known fighters like Mikey Garcia and Demetrius Andrade have trained there in the past. It’s debatable whether their stamina has improved or not. Mikey looked tired in his last fight against Errol Spence Jr. last year.
For his part, WBO middleweight champion Andrade (28-0, 17 KOs) gassed out after six rounds in his last fight against Maciej Sulecki last June. Although Andrade still won the fight by a wide decision, his legs looked rubbery, and he was completely exhausted in the last half of the fight. Whether Andrade would have been worse off if not for his SNAC training is unknown.
GGG’s next fight expected to be against Kamil Szeremeta
Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) is expected to defend against his mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs) on March 28 on DAZN, but the fight still hasn’t been made official just yet.
The 37-year-old Golovkin looked tired at times in his last fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko on October 5 in New York. GGG won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but it was closer than it should have been.
Golovkin was out-hustled in many of the rounds by the slightly younger 34-year-old Derevyanchenko. It wasn’t the age that caused Golovkin problems. His conditioning didn’t look up to par in that fight. He was better in many of his past matches against fighters like Kell Brook, Kassim Ouma and Danny Jacobs.
This will be Golovkin’s third fight under the helm of trainer Jonathan Banks, and it’ll be interesting to see if he can begin fighting the way that he wants him to. Banks was trained many years by Emanuel Steward out of the Kronk gym in Detroit, and he’s got a lot of experience.
If possible, Banks wants Golovkin to use more pressure, and throw more punches in his fights. Thus far, GGG hasn’t looked like he’s at the level that Banks wants him to be at. He wants Golovkin to be a punching machine, but he’s still throwing one punch at a time, and waiting too long before he throws his next one.
Banks replaced Golovkin’s previous trainer Abel Sanchez as his coach, and he sees a lot of areas that wants to improve. He can’t do that unless Golovkin’s stamina improves.
