Gennadiy Golovkin will have to look to another session inside the ring to obtain an A+ mark from his instructor.

The hard-punching IBF middleweight titleholder may have looked flawless in dropping outmatched mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta four times en route to a seventh-round stoppage last Friday at the Siminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. – but apparently it was not enough for his trainer Johnathon Banks to give him a perfect score.

But make no mistake, Banks was pleased as anyone else with his charge’s performance…he just happens to be a particularly demanding teacher. 

“Performance wise, [I give him a] B+,” Banks said on the 3 Knockdown Rule Podcast. “He’s doing more and more things that we worked on. I like it. He did a real good job.

“But we are trying to improve upon everything that needs to be improved upon. Me, personally, I thought he did a beautiful job. He handled everything like he was supposed to handle it. The fight never appeared to be getting away from him.

“I like his movement, his rhythm. I love when he starts placing that jab. I want him to be a little bit more consistent with the jab. Just little bit. There’s nothing major that he needs to do. Sharpen on the little things. But he’s already a great fighter. The goal is to make him appear more dominant and efficient.”

This was the third fight of their partnership. Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) linked up with Banks after his loss to Canelo Alvarez in 2018 and his fallout with former trainer Abel Sanchez. His other two fights under Banks were against Steve Rolls and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. The Szeremeta fight was Golovkin’s first fight in 14 months, due to the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

It was a welcome reprieve, apparently.

“I don’t know if he needed [the long break] or wanted it, but things worked out for the best, that I can say,” Banks said. “Things definitely worked out for the best.

“All it did was give us more time in the lab to work. It gave us more time to try new things, develop new things, and have different question and answers about different things. As far as that goes that was excellent. As far as having that time off to have more time to relate to one another and grow that chemistry it worked good.”

This was also the first time that Golovkin staged his training camp away from the high-altitude environs of Big Bear, Calif. Instead, he trained in South Florida. Banks, however, did not say if this would be the pattern moving forward.

“I don’t have an issue with him training at high altitude as long as his mental state is happy,” Banks said. “I think he will be fine. South Florida was different for him. Different environment, but he still looked the same. A gym is a gym.”