- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Two weeks after the Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao mega fight and with boxing looking for the future stars to carry on the momentum, two of those candidates delivered with impressive performances on the weekend.
Gennady Golovkin and Roman “El Chocolatito” Gonzalez made successful defences of their respective world titles with knockout victories at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Golovkin scored his 20th successive knockout with a sixth round stoppage of Willie Monroe jnr to defend his WBA middleweight title for the 12th time. This win further establishes ‘GGG’ as the top contender for Miguel Cotto’s lineal middleweight championship, which Cotto defends against a Golovkin victim, Aussie Daniel Geale, next month.
“GGG” worked his way into the fight, making Monroe miss and countering him when he closed the gap which was proving easier then many anticipated with Monroe’s tricky movement.
In Round 2 GGG cornered Monroe and dropped him face first with a huge left hook. Monroe beat the count but was clearly shaken and after an extended count (something modern referees have a bad habit of doing) the fight continued.
GGG tripled up his left hook with Monroe shuffling along the ropes then put him down again with a barrage punctuated with an overhand right.
Monroe looked badly hurt but again beat the count, before nailing Golovkin with a left uppercut to start a fightback. He just scraped through the round, as GGG closed in on him again but “The Mongoose” recovered between rounds and came out strong for the third.
Rounds 3 and 4 seemed like a different fight. Monroe started the third moving well but mixed it up with crouching stance on the inside where he landed well but didn’t do enough to take the round.
Golovkin continued to cut the ring off and concentrated on the body in this round.
Round 4 was the best round of the fight. Monroe held his ground and scored with combinations including lead uppercuts that jolted the former Olympic silver medallist’s head back and a straight left hand that surprised GGG.
Golovkin stayed in control of the fight and worked the body well, but Monroe was game and the crowd cheered on the action.
GGG nailed Monroe early in the fifth but the American stayed in front of him and tried to discourage him. It may have been his downfall as GGG at times seemed to neglect his defence seemingly convinced that Monroe couldn’t hurt him.
The fight ended not long into the sixth round. GGG caught Monroe bending forward with an uppercut, hurt him as he retreated to the ropes where a barrage put him down for the third time. Monroe beat the count but decided (wisely) against continuing.
Golovkin continues to impress, and while Monroe isn’t an elite middleweight there wasn’t really anyone else for him to face.
It’s hard to see Canelo or Cotto fighting him anytime soon. The only real way I can see an immediate shot at the lineal middleweight champion is if Daniel Geale upsets Cotto next month and Gennady attempts to avenge his loss, but I could also see him having an easy payday against Anthony Mundine or Sam Soliman in Australia before signing a rematch.
Geale may do better in a return fight, but there isn’t a middleweight alive who beats Golovkin, let alone goes the distance, in my opinion.
The main attraction saw Roman Gonzalez defend his WBC flyweight title with a two-round blowout of former WBC junior flyweight titlist Edgar Sosa.
Gonzalez started the fight cautiously, stalking a circling Sosa, using head movement and a high guard to defend against Sosa’s jabs and countered when he caught him near the ropes.
Midway through the round Gonzalez opened up and straight scoring away started with clean right hands followed by left hooks and rips to the body, all the while making Sosa miss then coming back with counter shots. The first round was highly one-sided and Sosa was stunned a couple of times.
Round 2 saw Gonzalez pick up where he left off and it wasn’t too long until Sosa was on the deck. “El Chocolatito” hurt Sosa with a body shot then later countered a Sosa uppercut with a left hook, followed it up and dropped Sosa with a one-two inside a Sosa left hook.
Sosa beat the count but was on the deck again not long after courtesy of a long right hand lead and a short left hook. Sosa looked beaten but bravely beat the count and fought on but it was all in vain. A volley of punches put Sosa down a third time and forced referee Raul Caiz snr to stop the bout.
To say Gonzalez was impressive was an understatement. This wasn’t my first look at Gonzalez and I’ve expressed to others before that he reminds me of a lightweight Roberto Duran, with his ability to punch in combination to the head and body all while maintaining his defence and making his opponent miss.
Talks of a fight with Naoya Inoue could eventuate but unless Inoue comes back down to flyweight (he recently jumped two weight classes and took a junior bantamweight title off Omar Narvaez after holding a junior flyweight title) I don’t see the fight happening anytime soon but that would be a mega fight for the little man down the track.
The card, despite having two highly rated champions fighting overmatched opponents, was quite spectacular. I’ve read reports that the crowd at The Forum in Inglewood loved both men and a solid fan-base could be built for them the same way it was for other fighters through the 60s and 70s.
It will be hard to bring Canelo from his Mexican holiday dates in Vegas (if he steals them from Mayweather) or Cotto from New York but Golovkin seems to be building his own kingdowm so to speak on the West Coast and the crowd also loved Gonzalez.
It was a good night for boxing.
Let’s get ready to rumble! Pick a fighter and place your bets with PlayUp for great odds. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
Arman Tsarukyan was an angry man on his way out!
A bloodied Tim Tszyu has been cruelly denied in his quest to emulate his legendary father Kostya and become a unified world boxing champion…
Liam Wilson has suffered further heartbreak in Arizona, the Australian boxer losing his super-featherweight world-title fight against Mexican Oscar Valdez. In front of a…
Tim Tszyu has the chance to emulate his legendary father as a unified world boxing champion after the stakes were dramatically raised for his…
Australia's Alexander Volkanovski has lost his UFC featherweight title to Ilia Topuria, with the Spaniard scoring a stunning second round knockout in the main…
