20 little-known facts about Gennady Golovkin

8. Golovkin’s twin brother, Max, was an elite amateur boxer

As children, both Gennady Golovkin and his twin brother Max were thrust into boxing, and both showed tremendous potential as amateur fighters. As recent episodes of HBO’s 24/7 series have shown, Max — who stepped away from boxing in his early twenties to help take care of his family and allow Gennady to focus on the sport full-time — is an integral part of Team Golovkin. And given the sacrifices Max made for Gennady, it’s no wonder that Triple G has profound respect for his sibling.

In the lead-up to the Daniel Jacobs fight, fans were given unique insight into the relationship between the twins. The above-linked episode of 24/7, around the 12-minute mark, features interviews with Gennady and Max that are, to say the least, revealing. Incredibly, Gennady insists that he was at one point not even the most talented boxer in his family, stating that his goal was always to be more like Max, who was “stronger” and “more serious.”

Gennady is the older sibling by 15 minutes, and yet it was Max who made the sacrifice that is typical of the kind of nurturing offered to Canelo Alvarez by his brood of boxing brothers. One of the standout segments of Max’s interview in the above-linked episode of 24/7 is when he describes two occasions where he and Gennady were competing in the same weight class at the same tournament. Gennady and Max were supposed to meet in the finals on both occasions; instead of fighting, they took turns withdrawing and conceding victory.

One would assume that Max might be struck with pangs of regret or jealousy based on Gennady’s success as a boxer and his burgeoning celebrity. However, there isn’t a shred of that when Max speaks of his brother, and their devotion to, and respect for, each other seems total. When both brothers were elite amateurs, the Golovkin family didn’t have the money to support both brothers being on Kazakhstan’s national team. Max, ever the pragmatist, conceded that Gennady had more drive at the time, and so he stepped aside, sacrificing his own glory while playing one of the most integral parts in the development of an all-time great middleweight.