Robert Garcia: Rubio's not coming to survive, he's coming to win

Preparing for a guy that you know his trainer very well, and he's on this streak, people think he's invincible. How do you prepare for him physically and more importantly, mentally?

"Right now, so far, he is invincible, because he hasn't lost ever, he hasn't lost in his professional career. So he is invincible. That's the way everybody believes. And I also understand, because it's just the way it is. But Rubio's a fighter that trained very hard. He's in great shape, he's in great spirits, we're gonna go in there and try to do what nobody else has ever done."

Rubio's a big guy, and I'm curious to see how his power is against Gennady's power. How do you compare the two?

"I don't know how hard Golovkin hits, because I've never trained him. I've never felt his punches. But it seems like he has tremendous power. But Rubio hits very hard, too. He's a solid middleweight that has a lot of knockouts. He only has, like, eight decisions out of, like, 60 fights or something like that. He's got tremendous power. Now we gotta see how well GGG can take a punch also, when he gets hit. His last five, six fights that we've seen, nobody has really hit him. I honestly believe that most of his opponents already have fear going in there against GGG, because of all the hype and everything. And I'm not saying he's a fighter they've built up from hyping him up. No, he's the real deal. Hits hard, great skills, great coach. He and Abel, they've done a great job. But a fighter like Rubio that's hungry, that has nothing to lose, and has tremendous power, we'll see how well (GGG) can take a punch."

Do you feel if it goes the distance that's a victory in itself?

"Well, you know, a victory would be winning the fight. We could easily go 12 rounds if we just move around and try to avoid getting hit, but that wouldn't be a victory for us. Because we'd just be trying to survive. That's not our game plan. We're here to fight. We're here to give the crowd the best fight of the night, and we're here to upset the world, because nobody really gives us a shot."

Why is this time different for Rubio? Why is he gonna win this big one?

"Look, Rubio's very motivated. He knows this fight leads him to huge, huge fights. Plus he's been in there before. He's been in there against Kelly Pavlik, he's been in there against Chavez Jr. Great fighters, great champions. So he's done it before. I don't think GGG has ever been in there against somebody like Rubio. He's been in there against some quality fighters, but not world class fighters. I think that could be a big difference. Rubio has experience, he has 60 fights. That's gonna make a big difference, also. Plus the sparring that we've had. You know, I have a whole bunch of Russians in my gym now. As soon as they learned about the fight, they were there to help. I was happy that day. They were helping out a teammate. They gave us great sparring, and we couldn't have any better sparring. I think he couldn't be in better shape than what he is right now."

And looking at him, I get the sense he's not scared of Golovkin, he's not buying into all the hype.

"That's one thing, since day one we've been pretty much putting in his head. As long as you're not afraid. Once you're afraid, there's nothing I could do, nothing his manager could do, nothing anybody can do. If a fighter's scared, you're gonna get knocked out. But if you don't respect your opponent, and you have no fear of him, and you come here to win, then with that mentality, why wouldn't it be possible?"