Claim: Gennady Golovkin holds the rank of  best middleweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.

Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin -LRB- Геннадий Геннадьевич Головкин born 8 April 1982 -RRB- is a Kazakhstani professional boxer who currently holds the unified WBA -LRB- Super -RRB- , WBC , IBF , and IBO middleweight titles . As of May 2017 , he is ranked as the world 's best middleweight by BoxRec and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board , and second best by The Ring . He is also ranked as the world 's third best boxer , pound for pound , by The Ring , fifth by BoxRec , and seventh by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board .   Golovkin won his first major world championship , the WBA interim middleweight title , by defeating Milton Núñez in 2010 . He was elevated to WBA -LRB- Regular -RRB- champion in the same year , and in 2011 would win the vacant IBO middleweight title by defeating Lajuan Simon . In 2014 , Golovkin was elevated to his current status of WBA -LRB- Super -RRB- champion and successfully defended both his titles against Daniel Geale . Later that year he defeated Marco Antonio Rubio to add the WBC interim middleweight title to his collection , and defeated David Lemieux in 2015 to win the IBF middleweight title . After Canelo Álvarez vacated his WBC middleweight title in 2016 , Golovkin was elevated to full champion and now holds world titles by three of the four major boxing sanctioning bodies .   A calculating pressure fighter , Golovkin is known for his powerful and precise punching , balance , and methodical movement . With a streak of 23 knockouts that spanned from 22 November 2008 to 18 March 2017 , he holds the highest knockout percentage -- 89.8 % -- in middleweight championship history . In 2016 , he achieved his 17th title defense by knockout , which equalled the record set by Wilfredo Gómez in 1982 . Golovkin is also said to have one of the best chins in modern boxing , having never been knocked down or knocked out in a total of 387 fights , neither as a professional nor amateur .   In his amateur career , Golovkin won a gold medal in the middleweight division at the 2003 World Championships . He went on to represent Kazakhstan at the 2004 Summer Olympics , winning a middleweight silver medal .