The Anatomy of a Violent Knockout


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On Saturday at about 10 p.m., the most exciting fighter on the planet will go for his 18th straight KO.

At his last fight Gennady Golovkin (30-0 with 27 KOs) destroyed a guy named Daniel Geale. You've probably never heard of Geale because no big name boxer dares fight the kid from Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

Julio César Chávez Jr. Miguel Cotto. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Canelo Alvarez. This is a list of fighters that are all scared of Golovkin, like the way boxers used to be afraid of Tyson.

There is no intimidating stare or tortured anger on display. It's the opposite: GGG is as unassuming as a Kazakhstani insurance salesman, but his opponents feel the middleweight's power—defeat clouds their eyes and fuzzes any strategy—after Triple G's very first punch.

After the Geale fight, before the punch became a GIF sensation, he talked me through the final sequence.

Golovkin, the middleweight champion, took down Geale in Round 3.

"When I move back with my shoulder, I missed my opportunity to do something that I wanted to do so I'm resetting… I'm looking at him. He is testing me," says Golovkin, speaking through his trainer and de facto interpreter, Abel Sanchez, since his English is still a work in progress. "He is saying, What are you going to do? What are you going to do?"

"Gennady will throw a punch and sometimes pause. He wants to throw perfect punches: perfect knuckle position, perfect distance, perfect balance, perfect turn with his body."

He sets up his punches with his feet. Sanchez compares it to an NBA player with a quick first step.

"When the situation presents itself he takes advantage of it because he is extremely fast," says Sanchez.

As Round 3 winds down, Golovkin says he is testing his opponent, sometimes punching him just to see how he reacts so he can set up a knock out blow. He sees an opening. "Killer instinct," he says.

"He has no power. Nothing. He thinks he is wolf. He is rabbit. I am wolf."

And then the knock out. There is 30 seconds left in the round. Golovkin is dominating Geale, but the Australian catches him with a right, which is rare because Golovkin is an excellent defensive fighter. (He ranks number two behind Mayweather for his defensive prowess).

Some people said GGG took the punch on purpose.

"Never," he says, then he recreates the moment with shadow boxing punches. "I make mistake. I remember this."

Golovkin had seen an opening and he wanted to set up a three-punch combination: jab, straight right, left hook. "1, 2, bam, bam… BAM!"

But his jab was a little lazy, and he was caught with the punch, but GGG continued the combination and powered a perfectly timed right, turning his knuckles and body…. "Bam!" He was never able to hit Geale with the third punch because the straight right was enough. This almost seemed to disappoint him.

Geale tumbled. Fight over.

The wolf ate the rabbit.

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