Rolls: I Was Confident Before Ruiz’s Win

Steve Rolls says he didn’t need to see Andy Ruiz Jr’s win over Anthony Joshua to be confident for his fight with Gennadiy Golovkin, but he admitted it did provide a boost to his confidence.

Rolls is scheduled to take on the former unified middleweight champion on June 8 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Just last week, that venue hosted arguably one of boxing’s greatest upsets, when Ruiz dropped the then-unbeaten Joshua four times en route to a seventh-round TKO and to claim the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO championships.

Rolls, at 19-0 and the heavy underdog in this bout, last competed in December, scoring a unanimous decision win over KeAndrae Leatherwood in his home country of Canada. Golovkin, meanwhile, has just two blemishes to his record, both against current WBA/WBC/IBF middleweight champ Canelo Alvarez. Their first meeting in September 2017 went to a highly-controversial split draw, with their rematch 364 days later going to Canelo via majority decision.

Don’t miss the weighin tomorrow for #GGGRolls at @TheGarden open to the public. Doors open at 2pm. @GGGBoxing @tecate @ChivasRegalUS @Jumpman23 pic.twitter.com/xxaehumXVa

— Tom Loeffler (@TomLoeffler1) June 6, 2019

Rolls says while that draw and loss were controversial in nature, they play a role in his confidence, knowing that GGG is beatable.

“I’m definitely confident of pulling off an upset,” Rolls told Omnisport. “I had a great camp and these are the opportunities I’ve been waiting for. I’ve always believed I can do it, even before that [Joshua-Ruiz] fight. But when I’ve seen a fight like that, it’s definitely a little motivating.”

Full fight card:
Gennadiy Golovkin vs. Steve Rolls
Ali Akhmedov vs. Marcus McDaniel
Brian Ceballo vs. Bakhtiyar Eyubov
Israil Madrimov vs. Norberto Gonzalez
Charles Conwell vs. Courtney Pennington
Nikita Ababiy vs. Juan Francisco Barajas
Johnathan Arroyo vs. Jordan Morales

Original Story: Boxing Scene