Periodically the sport of boxing will provide us with an unstoppable pugilist. The 1910’s and 1920’s belonged to a pair of former heavyweight champions in Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey. The 1930’s and 1940’s would be dominated by former heavyweight champion Joe Louis who would make way for Rocky Marciano to hold it down into the 1950’s. In the 1980’s former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson won the majority of his fights before he even entered the ring due to his tremendous punching power. In present day boxing the heavyweight division belongs to Wladimir Klitschko who is the undisputed champ there while WBA, WBC, and Ring Magazine Welterweight Champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather is the biggest box-office draw in the sweet science. But then you have WBA and IBO Middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin who has tremendous punching power and he is also in the process of developing a large fan base.
Gennady Golovkin
Golovkin dusted off Daniel Geale with a third-round TKO this past Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City to retain his titles. As a professional fighter, Golovkin in 30-0 with 27 victories coming via a knockout. As a pro fighter Golovkin has never gone 12 rounds and his last 17 bouts have ended with him scoring a knockout victory. But is there anybody in the middleweight or super middleweight divisions that can hang with the man that is known as Triple G?
In an era in which boxers tend to duck each other, Golovkin will fight anyone, anywhere, and anytime. Each fighter that Golovkin faces has a plan until they get into the ring with him and meets his awesome punching power which has made boxers rethink what is important to them.
Last June, Golovkin scored a third-round knockout over Matthew Macklin and in the process Macklin was beaten as if he owed Golovkin money. After disposing of Saul Roman last August, Curtis Stevens called out Golovkin. Golovkin and Stevens met last November. Golovkin introduced Stevens to his tremendous punching power in the first round. Stevens who was clearly out of his league was unable to hang with Golovkin and the fight was stopped in the eighth round. Geale and Golovkin had previously met in the ring as amateurs, but the past meeting could not prepare Geale for the punishment that he had to endure on Saturday night.
During his in-ring, post-fight interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman, Golovkin called out current Ring Magazine and WBC Middleweight Champion Miguel Cotto which would make for a terrific fight. Cotto doesn’t duck and dodge fighters as he is a very proud man.
Golovkin’s fight against Geale was his first bout in the arena at MSG as opposed to the theater there. Golovkin versus Geale was not a sellout at the World’s Most Famous Arena this past Saturday night, but that would not be the case if Golovkin were to meet Cotto who has a large Puerto Rican fan base in New York City. The hiccup in the plan for Golovkin is that Cotto has his eyes on Canelo Alvarez pending that Alvarez is ready to move up to the middleweight division which could leave Triple G in limbo. If Golovkin were to move up to the super middleweight division, WBA (Unified) and IBF Super Middleweight Champion Carl Froch has already come out basically stated that he wants no parts of Triple G. WBA (Super) and Ring Magazine Champion Andre Ward is the unofficial king of the division, but since his TKO victory over Chad Dawson in September 2012, Ward has only fought once. For Ward to fight Golovkin he would need at least one tuneup bout.
What scares some fighters about Golovkin is his tremendous punching power. It is Golovkin’s body shots more than the ones to an opponents face that do the damage. To defeat Golovkin a fighter is going to have go toe-to-toe with him in the middle of the ring without allowing himself to get trapped in the corner. Golovkin is an expert at cutting the ring off for an opponent while going to work on them in the corner.
In the meantime Golovkin can return to his home in Germany where he will play the waiting game as his humility will be on display. While some other fighters are all about flash, Golovkin treats fighting as a job. Golovkin trains hard because he simply wants to feed his family. When Golovkin is in the ring he cuts off the ring and stalks his prey. Opponents can run from Golovkin, but they can’t hide. It is only a matter of time before a top-notch fighter will climb into the ring with Golovkin who will be more than happy to introduce him to his powerful body shots.
Leave A Comment