Callum Peters impressed Gennady Golovkin in Paris – now he’s taking his first steps as a pro

Aussie boxer Callum Peters was one half of the Paris Olympics’ best fight. It saw him come face-to-face with one of boxing’s greatest ever fighters – not that he realised it.

Aussie boxer Callum Peters was hanging out at the Olympic village in Paris last year, just hours after his brutally close split decision defeat to eventual silver medallist Nurbek Oralbay.

The then 21-year-old was proud but disappointed in the loss to the highly-touted Kazakh fighter.

His fight was named the best of the entire boxing tournament at the Olympics, but he thought he did enough to jag an upset victory.

His day was about to become even more surreal as he was walking around the village with some teammates.

“This guy came up to me, gave me a handshake, and said something like, ‘Killer performance, can’t wait to see you in the pros’ and gave me a good handshake and walked past me,” Peters says.

“I didn’t know who it was.

“I thought it was some guy working for the Kazakh team. It was late at night, around 8 o’clock.”

Plenty of pundits thought Peters did enough to beat Oralbay. Picture: Jiang Wenyao/Xinhua via Getty Images

Thinking it was just a nice gesture from an official from the team of the fighter who’d just beaten him, Peters didn’t think much of it.

“I just kept walking along,” he says. “But then all the boys were like, ‘Do you know who that was??’

“I had no idea who it was and they said, ‘That’s Triple G!’

“I was just like, ‘What?! That’s Triple G? He looks different’.

“It wasn’t fight ready Triple G. You wouldn’t know it was the most dangerous bloke in the world.”

That’s the same Triple G, aka Gennady Golovkin, who ruled over boxing's middleweight division for the better part of a decade, including a knockout win over Aussie Daniel Geale at Madison Square Garden in 2014.

Peters can be forgiven for not recognising the unassuming GGG. Picture: Ben McShane/Sportsfile via Getty Images

Golovkin lands one on Canelo Alvarez. Picture: Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images

After retiring from fighting, Golovkin headed up the Kazakh Olympic boxing committee, and is now the chair of the World Boxing Olympic Commission.

He has been credited as one of the major figures behind saving boxing from the axe at the Olympics after years of scandal.

Any disappointment that his Olympics campaign had come to a premature end washed away pretty quickly.

“The whole experience was crazy,” he says. “That night, I couldn’t really sleep properly. It was beautiful.

“To get a bit of motivation from Triple G, that freaked me out a bit. It’s like he was undercover.”

Peters turned pro in Sydney in December and had his second paid fight on Tim Tszyu’s undercard in Newcastle in April.

The slick South Australian is back in action this Wednesday on the undercard to Liam Paro and Liam Wilson’s double header in Cairns.

The charismatic boxer still has one foot in the non-paid ranks too though, and is aiming to win an amateur world title in England later this year.

Peters celebrates his second pro win in April. Pictures: No Limit Boxing/Gregg Porteous

Australian men have won five bronze world championship medals, but no Aussie bloke has won World Championship gold.

It’s something Peters wants to put right, and he’s using this Wednesday’s fight against Anthony Hoarao (2-0) as the start of his prep.

“This Cairns card is massive,” he says. “To be part of it, to share the week with guys like Liam Paro and Liam Wilson – I can’t wait.

“I want to test myself under pressure and keep building momentum before the Worlds. I love the challenge of juggling amateurs and pros.

“No Australian man has ever won gold at the Worlds – that’s the first box I want to tick.

“Then I want to prove I can back it up in the pros. I want to hold the Aussie belt knowing I’ve taken on the best in the world and then come back home and come out on top too.

“This is about pushing the limits for Australian boxing.

“If I can show it’s possible, to win at the top level as an amateur and then succeed in the pros, then maybe more kids will believe they can too.”

Originally published as Callum Peters impressed Gennady Golovkin in Paris – now he’s taking his first steps as a pro