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15th Sep 2018

How Gennady Golovkin managed to eat this Canelo shot continues to astound us

What a f**king chin on that guy!

Darragh Murphy

BREAKING: Gennady Golovkin is not human.

Most fighters’ chins tend to look a little suspect once they reach their mid-thirties but that accusation certainly can’t be levelled at the undefeated Kazakh middleweight.

At 36 years of age, Golovkin’s chin remains as resolute as ever and it held firm against the hardest hitter that he’s faced in his storied career to date when he met Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in their controversial first fight last year.

For the vast majority of the 12 rounds, Golovkin took control of the centre of the ring and forced the heavy-handed ‘Canelo’ to fight off the back foot last September.

GGG continued to stride forward and literally smiled through the kind of shots from his Mexican opponent that have seen lesser men rendered unconscious.

https://twitter.com/Keen_Mind/status/909268270296920066

Just take a look at the utter lack of a reaction from Golovkin when ‘Canelo’ wound up and his trademark overhand right found a home on his opponent’s chin.

Golovkin’s head snapped back upon impact but he didn’t miss a step and just continued with his relentless forward pressure.

The ability to eat that kind of punch only becomes even more impressive when you look at the kind of damage it’s done to previous opponents of the Mexican powerhouse.

James Kirkland didn’t like it.

Amir Khan hated it. 

https://twitter.com/Geosfear/status/909239334808768512

But GGG treated it as if it was no more than a pesky fly landing on his face.

The original meeting of two of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in the world was scandalously declared a split draw and Las Vegas will get the lucrative rematch they so desperately desired this weekend.

Golovkin is the bookmakers’ favourite going into Saturday night’s rematch but there’s no doubting that his opponent has the ability to turn most middleweights’ lights out.

Has Golovkin’s ability to take a punch diminished over the past 12 months? We don’t have long to wait to find out.