“I’m feeling good, I’m excited. I like these moments. I’ve said it a few times before, the better fighters that I fight, the better that I fight. I like that pressure, I like fighting on big stages. For me it can’t get much bigger.”
New York’s Madison Square Garden, against Gennady Golovkin, with two world titles on the line, Daniel Geale’s illustrious boxing career has come to this huge moment.
Win this fight and he becomes one of the biggest names in the boxing world. Win this fight and all of Australia will finally know him.
Former world champion Geale has been boxing, as an amateur and as a professional, for 24 years. The country Tasmanian fought at the 2000 Olympics, won gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and claimed the IBO world title in 2008.
He picked up the IBF strap in 2011 and has fought around the world. Despite this, Geale is not well known by most Aussie sports fans.
Hard-working, humble, Geale has always quietly gone about his business. A family man, he does not seek the fanfare or attention.
Now, he faces the biggest fight of his career. The man who controversially lost a split decision to Anthony Mundine in 2009, and then flogged Mundine in 2013, who has won two world titles in Germany, is up against one of the top boxers on the planet.
Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin, the Kazakh knockout king. The 32-year old who lives in Germany, is based in the US and has bashed all 29 of his professional opponents.
After Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, ‘GGG’ is the next big thing in boxing. He may look harmless, like a choirboy and not a killer, but Golovkin hits like a hammer and has knocked out 26 of his 29 opponents.
Golovkin might be unbeaten, and has most of the boxing world scared of his fists, but he has yet to face someone of Geale’s ability. Geale has the better opponents on his record at this stage.
And 13 years ago these two fighters met in the ring as amateurs. It was in Osaka, Japan, at the 2001 Asian Games, and Golovkin won easily 15-3.
“I don’t remember a lot about the fight,” Geale told me.
“All I can remember really is that I felt that I didn’t fight well. I fought pretty badly in that fight and I deserved to lose. But I know now that we’re both very different fighters.
“We were both pretty young at [that] stage and there’s been a lot of fights since then. To be honest when I fought him I did make a bit of a change.
“In that 2001 period I stepped things up and 2002 I had success at the Commonwealth Games. I was able to learn from those experiences and get better from it.”
Geale is up against it with Golovkin. Make no mistake, the Kazahk is like a bigger version of Kosta Tszyu, his punches hurt and he is technically strong.
But Geale is used to pulling off upsets, used to being overlooked.
“I believe they’re taking me for granted, they’re looking past me already,” he said.
“That excites me. I like proving people wrong and making people pay when they look past me.”
The middleweight division is impressed and afraid of Golovkin’s power, but not Geale.
“It’s a matter of me using my strengths against his,” he said.
“Everyone knows he’s got my power but I think the reason he has had so much success at knocking people out is that he’s great footwork and great distribution of power, especially for people standing right in front of him.
“I’m not going to give him that opportunity. I pride myself on my defence and I don’t like getting hit. I’m going to make sure I make it very difficult for him to land anything as easily as he does in the past.”
Geale’s defence and footwork will be vital. The Australian has only been beaten twice in his career, the dubious first loss to Mundine, and a close defeat to Darren Barker last year.
Geale dominated a lot of the fight but Barker finished stronger, and Geale said he has learnt from that bout.
“We learned some lessons about doing things in my preparation, I think we tried to do too much at that stage, and probably over-trained slightly,” he said.
“I feel my power and strength is better than what it has been. I’m getting back to some of the things that worked for me a lot in the past.”
Geale could have fought Golovkin on two previous occasions. In 2013, when he fought Mundine for the second time, and then more recently when Geale knocked back the opportunity as the scheduling meant the fight wouldn’t be televised live in Australia.
Because of this, many have criticised and attacked Geale for ducking Golovkin.
The 33-year-old explained his decision to fight Mundine again last year and not Golovkin.
“We wanted the second fight to happen,” he said
“There was a lot of talk about the first fight and we knew we needed to fight again. I guess that was the right moment. We were happy to fight Golovkin, I guess, more on our terms.
“But we felt that at that moment the fight with Mundine was the right fight and were hoping that the WBA could see that. But unfortunately they couldn’t and decided to strip me of the title straight away… I wanted to fight him when he was still fighting well.”
That one-sided victory over Mundine certainly woke up many in Australia to Geale’s ability. Criticism that he was avoiding Golovkin has been water off a duck’s back to him.
“I knew the fight with Golovkin would happen at some stage, I was confident that my team would make it happen,” he said.
“But I was a little bit patient as well. I knew eventually I would get my chance.”
That chance is on July 26. Famous Madison Square Garden, HBO coverage, and the eyes of the world on him.
It’s been a long road to the top of boxing for Daniel Geale, and that journey could come to a famous peak on Sunday morning Australian time.
Follow John Davidson on Twitter @johnnyddavidson
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