Earlier this afternoon in front of a jam-packed room of media at NYC’s historic Gallagher’s Steak House in midtown Manhattan, K2 Promotions and DiBella Entertainment hosted the initial press conference to announce the highly-anticipated Middleweight Championship between defending champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (26-0, 23KO’s) and Ireland’s top-rated, former world title challenger Matthew “Mack The Knife” Macklin (29-4, 20KO’s).
The two highly-regarded middleweights will meet in their must-see showdown June 29th at the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods ® Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. The world title bout will be part of a HBO Boxing After Dark® triple-header, with the first live televised bout beginning at 9:45 PM ET/PT.
Below are quotes from the press conference, which was hosted by famed announcer Michael Buffer.
GENNADY “GGG” GOLOVKIN (WBA & IBO Middleweight World Champion)
I am very happy to be here back in NYC and back on HBO. We know that this is a very difficult fight for us, and one of the biggest fights that can be made in boxing right now. Matthew is going to be the toughest challenge I have ever had. He is just as big, fast and strong as me and we are expecting a very tough fight on June 29th.
MATTHEW MACKLIN (WBC #3, WBA #11 and & IBF #14)
I am not the kind of person to turn down world-title shots so when this fight was offered to me, it was a no-brainer. My lifelong dream has been to become world champion and now I have another shot at capturing the middleweight world title.
I take nothing away from GGG. I think that he is a great champion. On June 29th though, he is fighting me and I am by far the biggest puncher that he has ever fought in his life. He won’t be able to just walk in on me like he has been able to against some of his past opponents.
I want to be involved in the biggest and best fights that I can be in and that’s exactly what we have in our upcoming title bout. I think that GGG is going to have a great career and I have nothing bad to say about him as a fighter or a person, but he is going to lose on June 29th.
When Bernard Hopkins fought Felix Trinidad, everyone was picking Trinidad to walk right through Hopkins and knock him out. That didn’t happen though and Hopkins knocked him out, and that is exactly what is going to happen when we meet on June 29th. I am going to knock GGG out.