Dominic Wade spent a few moments on Thursday insisting he won’t be scared of Gennady Golovkin when the two meet on April 23 at the Forum in Inglewood, California, on HBO.

It was an interesting choice of words but given Golovkin’s streak of 21 straight knockouts, Wade, an unheralded middleweight from Largo, Maryland, had a point to make.

“I think all the fighters he fought were already scared before they got into the ring, so that ain’t me,” Wade told reporters before a press conference in New York. Later, when he took his place at the dais on stage, Wade mentioned the ‘S’ word again. “I’m not scared,” he vowed, facing the audience as Golovkin, the IBF and WBA middleweight champion, looked on.

It was the first time reporters had a chance to see Wade (18-0, 12 KOs) up close since he got the assignment some have dubbed Mission Impossible. Wade missed the Los Angeles presser on Tuesday because of inclement weather in his home state.

And the impression he left was a good, if quiet, one. Polite and amiable, Wade, 25, gently made his case that he’s the man to hand the 33-year-old Golovkin (34-0, 31 knockouts) his first loss.

“They making it seem like he’s Superman,” said Wade, who is advised by Al Haymon. “I don’t really think that much. I see flaws in his game. I think he’s just basic up and down. But the hype is scaring [people]. I don’t think he’s quick. All I think he has is his strength. Other than that he’s basic and it isn’t a style that I haven’t seen.”

A slick boxer with fast hands, Wade, the IBF’s mandatory challenger, said that Willie Monroe had the right strategy against Golovkin before he was stopped in the sixth round last May. “He had a nice kind of style,” said Wade, whose biggest win to date was a split decision victory against a 41-year-old Sam Soliman in June. “He was catching him. But I don’t think he had the power to do too much of anything and got tired.”

Wade felt that David Lemieux let his nerves get the best of him when he was stopped by Golovkin in eight rounds last October. “I think he was just a little nervous,” Wade said. “Some people get nervous and shut down.”

Wade is aware that few are giving him a chance to upset THE RING’s No. 3 pound-for-pound fighter. “That don’t really bother me,” Wade said. “I don’t focus too much on that. It makes me want to go out there to shock the world and that’s what I’m going to do.” He said he expected the reaction from the public to be dismissive when he was given the shot.

“Just being as though I haven’t really been in a fight like this and he’s been in a lot of fights like this,” Wade said. “I expected people to go out for the world champion before a contender, of course.” A few moments later he got up to leave to make room for Golovkin for the next round of interviews. Of course, Wade didn’t look scared when he left.

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