By Barry Holbrook, January 27, 2020
Mikey Garcia thinks Gennadiy Golovkin is making the right career move in changing his training camps from Big Bear, California to the SNAC facility in San Carlos. GGG has been training in the mountains at Big Bear at high altitude for a number of years, and he’s been doing a lot of jogging.
GGG (40-1-1, 35 KOs) is expected to fight in April in defending his IBF middleweight title against mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs) in either Chicago or Kazakhstan.
This is expected to be an easy fight for Golovkin, owing to the fact that Szeremeta, 29, has little punching power very limited talent an experience. Szeremeta’s best shot at winning this fight is to outwork Golovkin in the same way Canelo Alvarez, Daniel Jacob and Sergiy Derevyanchenko did.
GGG NEEDED TO CHANGE SOMETHING
Golovkin’s last performance against Derevyanchenko showed that he’s badly in need of a change with how he trains. In this case, Golovkin isn’t swapping out trainer Johnathon Banks. He’s just changing the location of where he trains, and is now using different methods at the SNAC facility.
For the last three years, Golovkin has been looking haggard and worn out in his fight. Some believe that the combination of the jogging and the high altitude mountain training has stripped GGG of muscle, as well as hurt him with his stamina.
In coming back down to sea level to train in beautiful San Carlos, Golovkin could potentially be fixing his stamina problem. Moreover, he’s now focusing on doing sprints at the San Carlos track, which means GGG won’t be doing the long runs anymore. If the jogging has been breaking down both fat AND muscle, then it’s not helped him.
“I think it’s a good fit because for a lot in Golovkin’s career, he’s focused a lot on strength training just to be strong physically, strong everywhere,” said Mikey to EsNews. “Building muscles even between your joints and s—. So it worked, and it helped him, but I think at this stage, they need to focus more on his speed and explosiveness to be more agile, a little more flexible and to be a little more fluid.
MIKEY BELIEVES GOLOVKIN WILL IMPROVE AT SNAC
“I think SNAC will allow him to do that. SNAC is very good at explosiveness, twitch muscles, reaction time, and all that. I think that’ll help a lot at this stage in his career just to sharpen him up a little bit more. So I think it’s a good fit,” said Mikey on Golovkin training at the SNAC facility in San Carlos.
It might not make a difference for Golovkin where he trains. He has a habit of hesitating too much, and not going on the attack until he feels the moment is just right. The problem he’s getting outworked now in his fights, and he’s giving up too many rounds.
