‘Gennadiy Golovkin broke my rib’… Boxing legend opens up about brutal spar with ‘Triple G’

Gennadiy Golovkin left a British boxing icon in agony with a brutal shot to the body.

In his career, this power puncher faced off with many an explosive fighter, but perhaps none more so than the ferocious Kazakh.

Gennadiy Golovkin broke George Groves’ rib

Gennadiy Golovkin and George Groves are both blessed with dynamite in their fists, with many of their former opponents having been left sprawled out on the canvas after tasting their heavy hands.

Therefore, the idea of the pair trading leather with one another is an undeniably salivating prospect. And in the confines of Abel Sanchez’s gym in Big Bear, California, USA, that fantasy became a reality, with Golovkin ultimately catching the Englishman with a thunderous shot.

In an exclusive interview with Sporf, via Mr Q, Groves recalled: “I sparred Gennadiy straight after I lost to Carl Froch in the rematch at Wembley. We flew out to Big Bear maybe a month or so after. It was just an idea. It came via my trainer, Paddy Fitzpatrick. I don’t know who his contact was out there. He was like, ‘Let’s go. I’ve been to Big Bear, it’s cool, and it’ll be a good experience’.

“I was out of shape, to be honest. It wasn’t like I was coming to bring my A-game, but I wanted to experience Big Bear, and I wanted to spar with Golovkin, who was a formidable middleweight. I was a super-middleweight, so it didn’t seem like a problem. We were never going to be rivals, and if we were, and he was to move up to super, then maybe I’d have a little bit of know-how about him.

“He’s a very good fighter. Probably one of the best fighters I’ve ever sparred with, considering I had a size advantage over him. He could stalk the ring really well. He’d set traps. We were in Abel Sanchez’s gym, so he had a lovely big gym, but it was really hot, summertime in California. He had big heaters on in the gym. They do four-minute rounds with 30 seconds’ rest. When you’re a pasty Anglo-Saxon who’s out of shape, jet-lagged, a little bit of sunburn, maybe even digesting a Corona from lunchtime, it wasn’t the greatest idea. But I loved it.

“First spar, got through it. Second spar, let’s knuckle down, eat a bit cleaner. I think I might have even got one run in before coming back three days later. And I’m just giving a really good account of myself, trying to put it on him. You can always tell because the gym sort of starts to stop, and everyone starts to watch. But he’s like ten days out from a fight, and I’m two days into a training camp, if that’s what you want to call it.

“Gennadiy Golovkin broke my rib on the right side. So I think he shows up and then just shoots down, and I hear a loud crack. I’m like, ‘Oh, he broke my rib’. But if anyone’s going to break your rib, I’m glad it was Gennadiy.

“We stopped the spar then because obviously, I wasn’t really preparing for anything. I jumped out, thanked him for the rounds and then that was the end of my trip, to be honest. We went home after that. It was a great spar with a really good fighter, an amazing fighter.”