By Keith Idec

Gennady Golovkin’s trainer is fully confident his fighter will impress American fight fans in his HBO debut Saturday night.

“I think boxing right now, in general, is lacking that Tyson-esque type of endings to fights,” said Abel Sanchez. “Where guys are heading home from work on Saturday afternoons [on the West Coast] because they have to go home because Tyson is fighting. … It’s those dramatic knockouts that boxing is lacking and I think that’s what you’re going to see on Saturday night.”

Sanchez cautioned, however, that Golovkin (23-0, 20 KOs) is more patient than Tyson was in his prime. He predicted the 30-year-old Golovkin, a native of Kazakhstan who lives in Germany, will pick apart Polish southpaw Grzegorz Proksa (28-1, 21 KOs) throughout their 12-round fight for Golovkin’s WBA middleweight title at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, N.Y.

“He’s not a Mike Tyson who’s going to go rush and do something that is unlike him,” Sanchez said. “He’s a stalker who looks for an opportunity, waits for you to make a mistake. But once he feels you out, he’s going to punish you. He’s devastating with the right hand, but his left hook is lethal to the body. He’s the kind of guy who cuts you up and busts you up while he’s doing it. He’s heavy-handed, but he also has excellent boxing skills. That comes from having 260 amateur fights.”

Tom Loeffler, managing director of the Klitschko brothers’ K2 Promotions (Golovkin’s promoter), also is excited now that their fighter finally will hit American airwaves.

“He’s going to provide them with entertainment inside the ring,” Loeffler said. “Gennady has the style. He keeps coming forward. He throws a lot of big punches, but he does it in a smart way. With his vast amateur experience, and then with what Abel Sanchez has taught him, he certainly has developed a style that will be entertaining for an American public that likes seeing knockouts and likes seeing competitive fights.”

The Golovkin-Proksa fight will be the main event of a “Boxing After Dark” doubleheader scheduled to start at 9:45 p.m. EDT. Ukraine’s Sergiy Dzinziruk (37-1, 24 KOs) and Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Gonzalez (15-0, 13 KOs) will open the telecast in a 10-round junior middleweight match.

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and krikya360.com.