“This complexity can only help Golovkin, born in Kazakhstan but now living in Stuttgart, Germany. It keeps him on the public’s tongues and thumbs, spawning arguments on social media that rage far longer than the ten or so minutes it took for him to dispatch Geale. Golovkin is quickly becoming the type of sports figure who validates worldviews, whose victories and defeats will be presented as evidence that a particular perspective on him, and any other attendant opinion tenuously attached to that perspective, is correct—and that those who disagree have faulty cognitive wiring.”

Read Mexican Style: Gennady Golovkin TKO3 Daniel Geale on The Cruelest Sport.

“This then, is the real reason why Golovkin-Geale, despite being Golovkin’s fourth appearance on HBO, has generated no more than the typical excitement that accompanies his return. Once more the regicide is merely sharpening his blade, biding his time with no shot at the king in sight. Such patience is necessary if Golovkin plans to rule middleweight in coming years, and the transition from the Theater to MSG proper Saturday shows his handlers are willing to take risks promoting “GGG” along the way. The dearth of marquee opponents though, the type Golovkin, his believers, his skeptics desire, has tried a collective patience.”

Read Straight from the Fountainhead: Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Geale Preview on The Cruelest Sport.