Preview: Gennady Golovkin vs. Steve Rolls

This week, boxing’s biggest fight is a wide mismatch, as GGG does his thing against Steve Rolls. Here are the details. This Saturday night we are back on DAZN for Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1; 34 KO) taking on Steve Rolls (19-0; 10 KO). GGG vs…

This week, boxing’s biggest fight is a wide mismatch, as GGG does his thing against Steve Rolls. Here are the details.

This Saturday night we are back on DAZN for Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1; 34 KO) taking on Steve Rolls (19-0; 10 KO). GGG vs. Rolls takes place this Saturday, June 8 and airs live on DAZN with a fight time of 7:00 p.m. ET for the prelims, 9:00 p.m. ET for the main card.

Gennady Golovkin

  • Canelo – There’s really only one word to define this phase of GGG’s career and that word is Canelo. The two men have been seemingly locked together for the past two years, with a pair of highly controversial fights to their name so far. Now, both are on DAZN, and a trilogy fight seems like a real possibility – maybe even to be announced here.
  • Where does he stand? – Very, very few thought GGG lost his last fight with Canelo, but he did indeed, at least on the books. So how does Golovkin bounce back from his first loss? This is the kind of fighter that GGG should mow down in a few rounds, ending with a spectacular highlight. If he fails to do that, it will tell us a lot about his current skills.
  • 37 years old – Father time catches up with everyone eventually. Has that time come for Golovkin? I’m not ready to say so just yet – he did after all just go toe to toe with Canelo. But I think you have to go all the way back to Dominic Wade in 2016 to see a truly aggressive, crushing GGG, and that worries me a bit.
  • 164 pounds – That’s the weight here, a catchweight 4 pounds above GGG’s standard Middleweight limit. Maybe a sign that he’s not in the best shape, but probably more a sign that this is not a very serious fight for him.

Steve Rolls

  • Undefeated?– This is a true statement. Steve Rolls is undefeated. But his 19 wins have no impressive names on them at all. They aren’t absolutely terrible, but they are nothing to write home about either.
  • 35 years old – Looking at his total fights, you’d be forgiven for thinking Rolls was an up-and-comer. No. He’s 35, turning pro very late at age 27. So he’s not remotely as battle-damaged as GGG, but he’s not a young gun either.
  • +1500 – Those are the odds, and they are long odds for sure, but…
  • The Ruiz Factor – We’re just one week removed from a fight where the +1100 Ruiz upset the massive favorite in Joshua. That’s why they fight the fights as they say in boxing. It feels like upsets are in the air, and Rolls is banking on that to pull off the miracle.

What else is on the card?

  • Ali Akhmedov (14-0, 10 KO) vs. Marcus McDaniel (15-0, 2 KO) – This is a 10 round Super Middleweight fight. Akhmedov is a 23 year old fighter that GGG Promotions seems to have plans for. McDaniel is also undefeated, but at 35 years old and with only 2 KOs to his name he’s less of an interesting fighter to watch moving forward. McDaniel comes in off a win over Brian Vera, which sounds good on paper, but then you realize it is the latest in a 3-9 run for Vera dating back to 2013, and… yeah. Akhmedov should have this, and might be worth a look.

Final Verdict

This doesn’t feel like a highly compelling fight, but GGG has typically had an ability to make any fight entertaining, and I’m interested to see if he can do it again.
Prediction: Gennady Golovkin, KO round 7