Gennady Golovkin is "perhaps the most marketable of anybody" in boxing as he faces Danny Jacobs on Saturday night in a middleweight title fight, and it has been Golovkin's work "inside and outside the ring that's made this possible," according to Josh Katzowitz of FORBES. Golovkin will be "basking in the adulation of 20,000-plus fans" in a sold-out MSG, with "money in the bank from the marketing deals he's struck with the Nike Jordan brand, Samsung, Tecate, and Apple Watch." Golovkin's success also comes from the "unrelenting support and gameplan put into place" by K2 Promotions Managing Dir Tom Loeffler. While he is "fun to watch in the ring," Golovkin also had to "make sure people would watch." Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez told him that if "people were going to subscribe to HBO or buy his PPVs, they expected him to be exciting while blasting out victory after victory." Katzowitz notes Golovkin's 23-fight knockout streak is "one reason people will watch." But another is because Golovkin was "willing to put in the work on the promotion side." Loeffler: "Gennady had a lot of things stacked up against him. His English isn't perfect. He's from Kazakhstan, so he doesn't have a natural following. He has to work twice as hard on the marketing side. A lot of fighters say they just want to focus on the fight and don't have time to do interviews or make appearances. Gennady understands that it's a big part of building his career" (FORBES.com, 3/17).
