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'If I beat Gennady Golovkin …' Unbeaten yet unknown Steve Rolls gets his shot

Nick Roy / theScore

TORONTO — Sitting ringside at the training facility where he's been steeling himself for the big break he always figured would come, Steve Rolls was asked to name the best opponent he's faced to this point in his professional career.

The Canadian boxer settled on Demond Nicholson, a 26-year-old super middleweight from Maryland who's regarded as an up-and-comer in his division. Two years ago this weekend, Rolls knocked Nicholson to the canvas in the third minute of a bout at a resort casino in upstate New York. He held on to win by split decision after eight rounds, preserving his unbeaten record despite being limited by injury.

"That's not taking away from Demond. I think he can do big things," Rolls said. "But that wasn't me at my best."

Steve Rolls (left) knocks down Demond Nicholson in 2017. Alex Menendez / Getty Images

For Rolls to even broach the possibility of defeating his next opponent, he'll have to prove that proposition true - while stretching it to its outermost limit - by putting forth the fight of his life, on the grandest stage in boxing, against a rival intent on reclaiming the world middleweight titles he once owned.

Few viewers who tune into DAZN on Saturday night will think Rolls capable of stunning Gennady Golovkin at Madison Square Garden. Many of them didn't even know his name when the matchup was announced a couple of months ago. Rolls is no Canelo Alvarez, the lauded Mexican middleweight Golovkin seeks to fight again later this year after - the plan goes - easily winning this stay-busy prerequisite.

Who, then, is the man Golovkin recruited to keep him active without standing in his way?

Rolls is 35 years old and hails from Chatham, Ontario, one of the towns that line the highway between Detroit and Toronto. He used to compete as an amateur for the Canadian national team, and he's since won all 19 of his pro fights - 10 of them by knockout - while traveling across his home country and as far as Texas and Utah. Repeatedly, he's called himself the "best-kept secret" of the middleweight class.

Nick Roy / theScore

As for the people who doubt he can pose a threat to Golovkin? Their chorus has done precisely nothing to quell his confidence.

"As much as I'm happy with this opportunity, I'm blessed, and I'm grateful for this opportunity, I'm not just content with this. I'm going there to win. I feel that this is going to open up doors for the next chapter in my career," Rolls said.

"People still haven't seen the best of me. Not even close," he continued. "I've been in there with world champions sparring, and I know sparring is different than fighting, but I'm telling you, man, whenever I'm in there with a certain level (of competition), I rise to the occasion.

"I may be an underdog to everybody else, but I know what I'm capable of. I know what I can bring."

Describing Rolls as an underdog against his legendary Kazakh adversary would be an understatement. Bodog lists Golovkin as a -5000 favorite, meaning bettors who back him must wager $50 to collect just $1 in profit. Golovkin has earned the esteem by building a 38-1-1 record as a pro, including a streak of 23 straight knockouts that spanned seven years. No opponent has ever knocked him down.

Gennady Golovkin (right) punches Canelo Alvarez last September. Al Bello / Getty Images

Golovkin is also widely seen as the top contender for Alvarez's various middleweight titles. They fought to a split-decision draw in September 2017 and Alvarez beat Golovkin by close majority decision a year later. Prevailing in another rematch, perhaps as soon as this September, is Golovkin's ultimate goal.

The former champ's pursuit to reclaim his belts will begin with this non-title fight against Rolls and then continue with five more bouts to be broadcast on DAZN over the next three years, the product of a nine-figure contract Golovkin signed with the subscription streaming service in March.

When the Rolls fight was announced the following month, Golovkin admitted at a news conference that he didn't know much about his Canadian foe - not to demean Rolls, but to argue that the lack of awareness could make things more difficult.

"Maybe he's not a big name, (but) I believe he's a very good fighter," Golovkin reiterated on "The Rich Eisen Show" last week. "He's very hungry. First of all, he's a professional athlete. He's a professional boxer. He's very dangerous. This is not a game. It's serious business."

Rolls is quick to return the respect. He called Golovkin one of history's most dominant middleweights and acknowledged that nothing less than a "near-perfect" performance will afford him the chance to pull off an upset victory.

"I've got to be mentally ready, 100 percent, which I am," Rolls said. "You just have to be very smart. We're talking about Golovkin here. This guy has so much experience, and he's a great fighter."

Omar Vega / Getty Images

Still, Rolls and his longtime trainer, Tommy Howat, contend that years of toil have prepared him for the immensity of this challenge. Rolls' verve and versatility in the ring have the pair convinced he can hang with anyone. It took a while, but his willingness to grind in relative obscurity has paid off: his cut for fighting Golovkin will exceed $300,000, much more than he's ever made in a single night.

What would happen if he manages to win?

"The sky's the limit," Rolls said.

Howat began working with Rolls when the boxer was 21, four years after he was introduced to the sport as an aimless adolescent. Within six months, Howat started to envision him facing Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya, who were dominating the welterweight division that Rolls began his career fighting in.

Soon, they decided to pack muscle onto Rolls' frame and elevate him to middleweight, while retaining the goal of having him enter the ring opposite superstars. But for the longest time, Rolls only did so as a trusty sparring partner, recruited by the likes of Glen Johnson, Andy Lee, David Lemieux, Billy Joe Saunders, and Adonis Stevenson when each elite fighter heard he was apt to push them hard in practice.

"I more than held my own with everybody," Rolls said of those experiences. "Obviously, you respect everybody you get in the ring with. But when somebody shows you they got skills to hang with you, you're going to throw a little more respect their way."

Steve Rolls (left) fights Demond Nicholson in 2017. Alex Menendez / Getty Images

But ever since Rolls turned pro in 2011, as he racked up win after win against boxers of lesser standing, bigger names have balked at facing him, likely figuring it would entail too much risk without a commensurate reward. Such is the catch-22 of ascendant pugilists who are skilled enough to scare anyone, but who don't have the profile to guarantee their opponent a worthwhile payday.

"His name wasn't to that stature to make those big bucks yet," Howat said. "We kept pushing and pushing. We knew we were going to get there. We just didn't know when."

Circumstance finally smiled on Rolls when Golovkin's camp came calling after several better-known middleweights - including Maciej Sulecki, Kamil Szeremeta, and WBO champion Demetrius Andrade - declined or couldn't commit to the opportunity. Rolls' nationality appealed to DAZN, Golovkin's promoter Tom Loeffler said in April, as the network hoped his presence on the bill could help generate increased Canadian viewership.

The bout will be contested at a 164-pound catchweight and is scheduled for 12 rounds, longer than Rolls has ever gone. Last December, in his most recent match, he beat Alabama middleweight KeAndrae Leatherwood in 10 rounds via unanimous decision.

That fight happened in front of a scant crowd at Toronto's Coca-Coca Coliseum, a minor-league hockey arena that's a far cry from the prestige of MSG. The hallowed hall in New York is where Andy Ruiz Jr., a colossal underdog, stopped Anthony Joshua in the seventh round last weekend to seize the unified world heavyweight championship.

Nick Roy / theScore

Ruiz's unlikely triumph won't have any bearing on the outcome of Golovkin-Rolls, but at the very least it was an enthralling stage-setter - and, for Rolls, a reminder of the objective he's always chased.

"My main goal when I turned professional, even when I started boxing, was to become world champion. (If) I beat Gennady Golovkin, that's a major accomplishment. That's history I'm setting for myself," he said. "But at the same time, when the fight's over and done with and I've won, I'm still not world champion. I still have a lot of work to do."

Conveniently, that's how he's always operated. Shortly before leaving for NYC, as Howat reflected on the inactivity and other pitfalls that long stunted Rolls' progress up the middleweight ladder, he said he's never encountered a boxer who works harder.

It's the source of Rolls' substantial confidence, Howat added, and it's the reason the trainer tendered this suggestion to the boxing public: Tune in on Saturday night.

"We have respect for Golovkin, and we know what we're getting into. (But) I don't see it being any different than what he's been doing to guys for the last 14 years," Howat said of Rolls.

"We're going to be disappointing a lot of people in the world," he continued. "Steve's hand is going to be raised after this fight. We know it in our bones."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

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