Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin dominated the more then capable David Lemieux on Saturday night in front of an electrified crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The bout served as Golovkin’s first pay per view fight on HBO. Those who questioned whether or not Golovkin was at PPV level at this stage of his career – or if the tough Canadian titleist Lemieux was a worthy opponent for a PPV event – would not have been disappointed.
Lemieux was brave and certainly had his moments but Golovkin’s jab was supreme and his power undeniable.
Remarkably Golovkin’s KO percentage has surpassed Mike Tyson’s at the same stage of their careers. Lemieux joined an ever growing list of creditable middleweights including Wille Monroe Jnr, Martin Murry, Marco Antonio Rubio, Osumanu Adama, Mathew Macklin, Daniel Geale and Curtis Stevenson to be destroyed by the Kazakhstan fighter who now resides in California.
In 34 professional fights it would be fair to say that Golovkin had yet to be tested, this is not due to a lack of creditable opponents but a testament to his skill, power and unrelenting style.
Golovkin is fast running out of options at middleweight. A fight with WBC middleweight title-holder Miguel Cotto seems highly unlikely with Cotto’s next fight against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez taking place at a catchweight – just 1lb inside the middleweight limit.
Should Alvarez be successful in their upcoming bout, it’s hard to see his promoter Oscar De la Hoya risking his only marque name against Golovkin. The only other names at middleweight are Peter Quillin who is struggling to make the middleweight limit these days and Andy Lee who has a big money title defence coming up against Billy Joe Saunders in Europe.
A move for Golovkin up to super middleweight seems to be inevitable at some stage, but negations with the division’s number one fighter Andre Ward appear to have come to a standstill. Ward is highly rumoured to be stepping up in weight to the light heavyweight division with HBO planning to build towards a PPV fight in late in 2016 with Sergey Kovalev.
Whichever way Golovkin’s career goes, his star has certainly arrived.
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