Gennady Golovkin not fazed by pressure of carrying first PPV card

NEW YORK – Gennady Golovkin was running late, and publicist Bernie Bahrmasel kept assuring two reporters waiting for him that the middleweight champion would arrive for his scheduled appointment momentarily.

Ten minutes go by and no Golovkin.

Another 10 minutes, and the champ still hasn’t arrived.

After a half-hour, Bahrmasel shrugs his shoulders and arches his eyebrows. No Golovkin yet.

“Should be soon,” he sighs.

It’s unclear why he’s late, and it’s out of character for him. The weigh-in for his title unification bout with IBF champion David Lemieux was less than 24 hours after this meeting, so one wonders whether it could be a weight-cutting issue that is keeping him.

Or, perhaps, he’s been injured.

But soon enough, a beaming Golovkin bolts through the door with a large entourage that includes his twin brother, Max, promoter Tom Loeffler and trainer Abel Sanchez in tow.

“Sorry,” he says, sheepishly, “I couldn’t [urinate].”

Golovkin was held up because as he was leaving his hotel, he was stopped by drug-test administrators and it took a while before he was able to provide a urine sample.

There was no weight issue or injury that delayed him. He said he weighed 161 pounds at that moment, which was about 20 hours from Friday’s weigh-in at Madison Square Garden.

He looked magnificent and was bright, beaming and alert.

It’s the biggest fight of his career, and if the pressure of carrying a pay-per-view and fighting a knockout artist in a bout for the IBF, WBA and interim WBC middleweight belts are getting to him, it’s impossible to tell.

Not only is he tasked with the heavy lifting of selling his first pay-per-view, a notoriously difficult business, he’s also, in a way, competing with Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, the WBC flyweight champion who faces 2000 U.S. Olympian Brian Viloria in the card’s co-main event.

In the wake of Floyd Mayweather’s retirement, the mythical title of boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighter is up for grabs.

Many, including Yahoo Sports, have accorded the unbeaten Gonzalez that honor. Others have tabbed Golovkin. But virtually all polls now have the men 1-2 in some fashion.

It’s rare when the two best fighters in the world appear on the same card, whether they’re fighting each other or not. In the last 25 years, it’s happened only four times.

In May, Mayweather defeated Manny Pacquiao in the largest-grossing and best-selling fight of all time. In 1997, Oscar De La Hoya, who is co-promoting Saturday’s card, beat Pernell Whitaker in Las Vegas for the mythical pound-for-pound championship.

And in 1994, the great Roy Jones Jr. defeated James Toney in Las Vegas.

De La Hoya, no fan of Mayweather’s, calls it a relief that boxing is about to head into a new era.

“Mayweather, he wasn’t about the fans,” De La Hoya said. “He was about the money; only the money. ‘Give me more. Give me more. Give me more.’ That’s what he worried about and he didn’t give the fans what they wanted to see. It’s OK to make a lot of money, but boxing is about the pride and passion and giving the fans the best against the best. Mayweather didn’t care about the fans; he cared about himself.

“These guys, they care. They want to put on a show. They want everyone who watches them to feel like they’ve gotten their money’s worth. So it’s important not just that we have the two guys on this card people say are the best, but that they are the kind of fighters that fans have been asking to see for years.”

Golovkin is nothing if not an entertainer. He speaks multiple languages, but is still learning English. Once, a year or so ago when he wasn’t as advanced with the language as he is now, he was speaking of Canelo Alvarez, whom he may face in the near future.

He wanted to call him a “nice guy,” but couldn’t get the phraseology correct. Instead, he referred to Alvarez as “a good boy,” which the fan base loved. And so even after Golovkin understood the correct way to say it, he continued to refer to Alvarez as a good boy, always getting a rise from the crowd.

And so surely, a guy who loves the big stage and the bright lights will not want to be upstaged by some flyweight on the undercard, even if Gonzalez is no ordinary flyweight. The competitive side of him, Golovkin was asked, will certainly make him want to outshine Gonzalez to win widespread acclaim as the best there is, regardless of weight class, right?

Golovkin leaned forward in his seat, and for a moment, looked very serious.

“Of course, the fight with Lemieux is the most important,” he says. “That’s what I’m here for.”

There is an awkward pause, and then he breaks into an impish grin.

“But yes, it is important to show the world who is the best,” he said. “This will be fun.”

He goes on at some length, showing no signs of stress, no visible signs of being burdened by the enormity of the moment.

He’s asked about his defense, and he points out how he often will leave himself open intentionally, inviting an opponent to hit him so that he’ll be able to return fire himself.

Not everyone, he said, is so eager to mix it up. He referred to one-time opponent Daniel Geale, a former world champion whom he badly outclassed and stopped in the third round on July 26, 2014.

He scrunches up his face and pulls his arms and shoulders in, imitating a child who is fearful.

“No, no, don’t hit me!” he says, laughing heartily, as he talks about fighters who are unwilling to crack him even when given the chance.

Everyone around him chuckles. Soon, he arises from his seat, on to do more interviews in another room.

“This is going to be fun,” he says, as he rubs his hands together in anticipation and heads toward the door. “Lots of fun on Saturday night. Don’t miss it.”

Few hardcore boxing fans will, rest assured of that.