IBO praise Gennady "GGG" Golovkin

The IBO look back on Gennady Golovkin's career and thank him for his representation of the belt

Gennady "GGG" Golovkin is widely regarded as one of the greatest middleweights of the 21st century, some would even go as far as putting him in the top 10 middleweights of all-time.

It's easy to make comparisons between Golovkin and another legendary middleweight in Marvin Hagler. They were two fighters that were avoided, with certain promoters at the time aiming to brush them under the rug until they forced the boxing world to recognize their skills. Another coincidence is that they both lost in extremely controversial fashion in the biggest fights of their careers against Saul Alvarez and Ray Leonard respectively.

Hagler, like many fighters, wasn't truly appreciated until he had retired, in a similar way to former IBO world light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins. It could be said that this could be the case with "GGG", but the Kazakh puncher believes he is far from finished yet and intends on smashing a hole once again through the middleweight division in a way that will have people talking for generations to come.

Gennady first won the IBO world middleweight title back in December of 2011, as he demolished Lajuan Simon in the opening round of their contest in Dusseldorf, Germany. Many inside commentators and amateur boxing experts knew what Golovkin was about at this point, but the Simon fight was the first fight which many saw the formidable puncher stand out in.

After a defense of his title in Ukraine, Golovkin hit the big time when he clashed with highly rated Pole Grzegorz Proksa at New York's Turning Stone Resort. This fight was one of the first times Golovkin had been televised on a big platform, hitting the homes of then-industry leaders in boxing in the US, HBO, and live on Sky Sports in the UK.

Golovkin systematically dismantled the durable and talented Proksa with relative ease as people began to realize that Kazakk Thunder was real.

The North East American fight fans took to the then-30-year-old instantly, and his next fight was in a venue which became his American home, the Mecca of Boxing, Madison Square Garden. If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere and "Triple G" certainly did.

Golovkin's second home in the United States comes in the form of Los Angeles, with standout performances at the Inglewood Forum and the StubHub Center in Carson, with a couple of pit stops in Monte-Carlo, Monaco and one in the U.K, GGG showed he really is the true definition of a world champion, fighting anyone - anywhere and winning convincingly on all occasions.

Gennady, all in all, made 18 defenses on his IBO world title over an eight-year period, putting himself in an elite category where many can never dream of getting close too. In an era where titles are vacated as quickly as they are won, GGG always respected the titles he had earned and defended them with pride and ferocity against all comers, with his only loss coming in a controversial fashion that is still heavily debated nearly 12 months on.

GGG now looks to be facing another hard-hitting no-nonsense fighter from the Eastern Block in Sergiy Derevyanchenko, a fighter that also mirrors GGG out of the ring, being a family man who is respectful of his peers and the sport of boxing but is a brute force in the ring. This is a fight that we all sincerely look forward to and we wish both boxers the best of luck.

We at the IBO believe Gennady "GGG" Golovkin is not just a cornerstone of the middleweight division, but a cornerstone of the boxing community as a whole, and an excellent representation of it. We were delighted to have him as our champion for such a long period and it wouldn't surprise us if Golovkin become middleweight champion of the world once again, and we thank Gennady and Team GGG for their excellent representation of the IBO for the vast majority of the last decade.