Current WBA and IBO Middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin is an extremely humble man outside of the ring, but when the bell sounds he turns into an assassin. After Saturday’s convincing victory over Curtis Stevens at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, Golovkin’s record as a professional is now a stellar 28-0. Of those 28 victories, 25 have come via the knockout and he has never had a professional fight go the distance. Golovkin’s approach is simple as he will beat his opponents into oblivion until they cannot take anymore of the punishment that he administers. Stevens found this out the hard way on Saturday night.
After securing a victory this past August over Saul Roman, Stevens declared that he wanted to face Golovkin. Stevens talked some smack heading into the bout with Golovkin and he suffered the consequences for it as Golovkin let his boxing gloves do the talking for him as he proceeded to tattoo the face and body of Stevens. Stevens who is a native of New York City felt comfortable heading into the bout, but he was unable to answer the bell for the 9th round after taking a beating from Golovkin. Golovkin knocked Stevens down in the second round which left Stevens in disbelief of Golovkin’s power.
Golovkin is a knockout artist who doesn’t attempt to knockout his opponents. Golovkin just simply wears his opponents down with his power. Coming into the fight this past Saturday night, Stevens was the quicker fighter, but he couldn’t run away from Golovkin for the entire night and the native of Kazakhstan made him pay. According to CompuBox stats, Golovkin was able to connect on 293 punches while Stevens only threw 303.
You must give credit to Stevens for taking the fight with the man referred to by his fans as “Triple G” because of the extraordinary punching power that Golovkin possesses. But the desire to fight Golovkin won’t be enough to defeat him as it will be a fighter’s ability to box along with the willingness to take a punch which his first 28 professional opponents have been unable to do and many in the boxing game have attempted to avoid.
Golovkin is open to fighting anyone that is put in front of him which he further illustrated to HBO’s Max Kellerman during his post-fight interview on Saturday. But it could be time for Golovkin to move up in weight. At the middleweight division, the only real contenders for Golovkin to fight are the WBC Middleweight Champion in Sergio Martinez or the WBO Middleweight Champion Peter Quillin. Martinez is 38-years of age and after his victory in April over Martin Murray, he has been inactive following knee surgery. In his 30 professional fights Quillin is undefeated, but he fights exclusively on Showtime while Golovkin fights on HBO which is another example of the dirty underbelly of boxing.
At the super middleweight division of 168 pounds, there are tougher fighters the likes of WBA Super Middleweight Champion Andre Ward, WBA and IBF Super Middleweight Champion Carl Froch, as well as contenders Lucian Bute and Mikkel Kessler. Due to a shoulder injury Ward hasn’t fought in 14 months, but he will make his long awaited return to the ring on November 16 against Edwin Rodriguez. Throughout his career Froch has never backed down from a challenge and he can mix it up with various styles in the ring. Bute and Kessler are both seasoned veterans of boxing and each could become a good opponent for Golovkin if he decides to move up for a bigger payday.
Golovkin has developed a reputation in boxing of a guy that nobody wants to fight for his impressive punching power. To this point of his career nobody has gotten in the ring with him that could figure him out. Several years ago Golovkin was a virtual unknown in boxing, but if he continues to destroy opponents in the fashion that he is he will become a hotter topic than Obamacare.
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