Daniel Geale: “Golovkin is a tough fighter and very powerful puncher as well, but I think he has opponents that have been picked pretty well for him.”

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with former IBO/WBA/ IBF middleweight champion, Daniel ‘Real Deal’ Geale. Geale has a professional record of 30-2, and has faced many of the top fighters in the middleweight division. In this interview Daniel speaks about how he first got into boxing, as well as his first title fight with Daniel Dawson. Geale also discusses his fights with Anthony Mundine, Darren Barker and Felix Sturm. Here is what Daniel Geale had to say in part 1 of his interview.

Robert Brown: Daniel, how did you get into boxing? Can you give us some background about how you got into the sport?

Daniel Geale: I started boxing when I was about nine years old. I just decided to get into it to try something a little bit different, I wasn’t doing any other sport at the time. It was just to give it a try and it was something that I loved from pretty much day one.

My dad started taking me, dragging me along in my first couple of sessions, but after that I was dragging him along to take me there. It’s something that I enjoyed a lot as a young person and as I got a little bit older I had to make a few big decision but it’s something that I was able to make a living out of, which is pretty good.

Robert Brown: Your first world title fight was for the vacant IBO middleweight title against Daniel Dawson. In the fight you got a cut over your left eye and your right eye got swollen, how were you able to keep you composure under the pressure of that fight so early in your career?

Daniel Geale: Yeah looking back on it there was a bit of pressure there, but I guess I’ll put it down to having a good corner. I’ve been with my guys at the Grange gym for a very long time now, we trust each other a lot.

At the time I had Jeff Fenech helping me out a fair bit as well. Having people like that supporting and helping definitely makes things a lot easier. As well from my amateur background — I had a lot of fights in the amateurs and I was sort of well aware of how things go.

Getting cut and bruised and things like that had happened to me before and it’s something where some guys can lose it but lucky I had a good corner to settle me down and I knew what I had to do — I just had to go out there and keep doing what was working and keep outboxing him.

Robert Brown: One of the biggest fights in recent Australian history was your fight in 2009 against Anthony Mundine for the IBO world title. You lost that fight on an extremely controversial split decision. What did you learn from that experience?

Daniel Geale: I guess I realized how far I can actually push myself and how much I’ve got left to learn. I still believe I’m learning every time I step into the ring and having such a great team around me helps me with my learning.

I have a great trainer in Graham Shaw that pushes me physically as well as mentally sometimes as well, that’s exactly what you need. Having fights like that which are close, it can be frustrating, it can go either way, and on that night it didn’t go my way but it was something I used to motivate me.

I didn’t feel that I was beaten in that fight — I didn’t feel like he had it over me at all. It just sort of pushed me on to train harder and make sure that I got better from that, and I believe I did get better from that fight, and as it went on I kept getting better.

Robert Brown: You had another title opportunity, this time against Sebastian Sylvester over in Germany. You thoroughly outboxed Sylvester and got the win but were you worried about the scorecards or were you comfortable that you were gonna get the win?

Daniel Geale: I think you always got to be worried. To be honest, everybody talks about Germany — and there have been plenty of bad decisions in Germany — but if you go traveling or fighting anywhere in the world, there can be bad decisions, it’s just the way it goes.

I guess it was probably more so a little bit more frightening in Germany, but I had confidence in my team and they were keeping the playing field as even as possible. I just had to go out there and do my job — and I had to be convincing in it as well.

I felt like I won the fight pretty fair and square — I just had to have faith that nothing was gonna jeopardize that, none of the scoring was gonna affect that. It was probably a bit closer than we thought but we got the decision over in Germany which everybody thought was an impossible thing to do.

Robert Brown: You managed to take Felix Sturm’s title over in Germany, many people felt that fight was close. How do you feel about your performance in that fight?

Daniel Geale: I felt more confident against Sturm in the actual fight — I felt that I won that fight and dominated him in stages as well. I was very confident that I’d beat him. With the Sylvester fight, it was a bit sort of back and forth in stages, I know I was landing a lot better punches but he kept coming back whereas with Sturm, I was landing the bigger more vicious punches, and hurting him a little bit more consistently.

I felt better after the Sturm fight, even though it was probably a harder fight as well. Once again, I just had to have faith in my team and I knew that the right decision would come about.

Robert Brown: How do you think Sam Soliman will do against Felix Sturm in their rematch?

Daniel Geale: Well you know Sam’s gonna make it hard for anybody. Sam’s got a different style that a lot of people find difficult — that served him well over the years. I’m sure he will make it difficult for Sturm again, but in saying that, Sturm’s a smart fighter, so whether he’s learned a little bit from that first fight and got his motivation back — I’m not sure — but when he fought against Darren Barker, he seemed to have a little bit more power in his punches. It does make an interesting fight, it will be a good one to watch.

Robert Brown: Unfortunately your fight against Matthew Macklin was cancelled. Now a fight between you and Gennady Golovkin seems destined. What do you think your strengths will be against Golovkin?

Daniel Geale:I’ve seen a lot of Golovkin and I know what he’s about. I had some experience with him in the amateurs as well. He is a tough fighter and very powerful puncher as well, but I think he has opponents in the past that have been picked pretty well for him.

I’m excited to have the opportunity — especially fighting for another title against a guy that probably hasn’t fought too many fighters like me in a while. It’s gonna be exciting for me because I’ll get another shot at a title and on a big stage as well against a big opponent. That’s exciting for me, that’s exactly what I want and I’m gonna make sure that I make the most of it.

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Stay Tuned to ontheropesboxing.com for part 2 of Daniel Geale’s interview