8 Things to Know About Boxer Gennady Golovkin, Canelo's Next Opponent

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Mexican boxer and three-time world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez—known as Canelo—will face Gennady Golovkin–known as GGG–in Las Vegas this coming Saturday. Some consider it the most important fight of the year.

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“The beauty of this matchup is that both guys can hurt each other. With two punchers like GGG and Canelo you never know what round it might end,” fellow boxer Oscar De La Hoya told ESPN. “Whether there’s a rematch obviously depend on the outcome, but I feel strongly that there might be a trilogy brewing.”

Who is Canelo’s opponent? Here are 8 things you need to know about the fighter before it all goes down:

1. He is originally from Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Republic in Central Asia. His father is Russian and his mother is Korean.

2. He has four brothers, one is his fraternal twin Maxim, who is also a professional boxer. Even though the two brothers were both winning titles as a hobby, Maxim sacrificed his potential placement in the 2004 Olympics in Athens for Gennady’s sake because there was only one spot in the middleweight for Kazakhstan. “He said to me ‘G, you’re 15 minutes older than me, you go first’,” Golovkin said of his brother.

3. Golovkin ended up nabbing a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics.

4. In 2006, he began his professional career and remains undefeated.

5. He uses Mexican boxing techniques taught by coach Abel Sánchez, who was born in Tijuana, Mexico.

6. Golovkin’s father died of a heart attack in 2014 and the boxer lost two of his older brothers in the 1990s while they were serving in the former Soviet Union’s armed forces.

7. He is a fan of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and basketball legend Michael Jordan.