Power vs volume punching: Golovkin-Geale preview

On Saturday, at the Madison Square undefeated Garden Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan will face Daniel Geale of Australia. The hard-hitting Golovkin will be facing the toughest opponent in his career. It has been said before, when he fought Mathew Macklin. But Macklin was not able to provide Golovkin any test, as he was neutralized in Round 3. This time, it is Geale who is thought to give the real test.

Not too long ago, in fact six fights ago, the totally unknown Golovkin, 29-0, 26 KO, first fought in the US, at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, stopping Gregorz Proksa in Round 5. From that fight onward, Golovkin continued stumping opponent with ease, amassing 16 knockout-winning-streaks in the process. He has faced hard-hitting Curtis Stevens, highly regarded Gabriel Rosado and middleweight contender, Mathew Macklin. But no one gave something that would tell us that this is the way to beat Golovkin. They might have shown some hints but Golovkin's power overwhelms them before they could capitalize.

Here comes Daniel Geale, 30-2, 16 KO, a former alphabet middleweight champion and Transnational Boxing Ranking's Board rank number five. Geale has the ledger better than any opponent Golovkin has faced. And he defeated all of them, except, against Darren Barker and Anthony Mundine -- whom he lost to both by split decisions -- which means no one has dominated Geale.

Golovkin is a scientific pressure fighter. He knows how to cut an opponent off in the ring. He uses his jab well and has tremendous power in both hands. His power punches are so devastated once it landed to an opponent, especially to the body. Not just power -- but he also understand, timing and distance. He has good defense and decent chin. On the other corner, Geale throws a lot of punches, although there's not a lot of power behind those punches, it is enough to overwhelm an opponent if it landed in regularity. While throwing those punches, Geale is always there for counters -- a situation he can avoid if he throws them with angles.

I think Geale will have early success in the fight with those sheer of volume-punching. But as Golovkin starts to connect his power punches -- it will boils down on how well Geale, can absorb those power punches and move forward from there. I think Golovkin will wear down Geale in the middle rounds and stop him from there, or even earlier. The fight might be drag beyond Round 6, which will depend on how Geale will adjust. If he tries to box and throw combinations with angles, avoiding Golovkin's counter. But it seems to me that this is not Geale's style. Avoiding Golovkin the entire fight is somewhat next to impossible, as he is good at cutting the ring off. And I don't even see the provability of Geale knocking out Golovkin. With the above being said, I've got Golovkin by knockout between rounds four to eight.