According to a source with knowledge of the situation, a long-time friend and confidant of undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin recently revealed that his own promotional/management team purposely advised him not to pursue a potential showdown with undefeated former world champion Andre Ward. We're told that shortly before Golovkin's 2nd round knockout of mandatory challenger Dominic Wade, his childhood friend from Kazakhstan struck up a conversation with world-class trainer Virgil Hunter, who was also in attendance at the fights and happened to be seated right next to our source.
According to our source, after showing Hunter several pictures of himself and Golovkin throughout the years, the friend began to share with Hunter a discussion that he and Golovkin previously had regarding a potential showdown with undefeated former world champion Andre Ward. "I was angry with him; he would not fight Andre Ward. I begged him. I tell him he had to for respect. He said, 'No, the promoters don't want me.' I say, 'Don't hide behind promoters. You can get the fight. You have to fight Ward for respect.' He said, 'No, not right now.' I asked him, 'Are you afraid?' He repeated, 'No, the promoters don't want me.' He got so mad," the friend reportedly said to Hunter during their conversation.
FightHype.com reached out to Hunter to verify the account of our source. Although he did not get into any specific details, Hunter confirmed that he did indeed have a conversation with Golovkin's "good friend from childhood" about the reasons why a fight with Ward never came to fruition. "I like Golovkin, but I think some of the people around him are phony," Hunter added before getting off the phone. Calls to members of Team Golovkin have yet to be returned.
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