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.
Justin Faux
Expert
GGG looked outstanding. I felt it was one of his most mature fights - Lemieux clearly couldn't out-box Golovkin, but he has crushing power that could shatter the middleweight champs aura of invincibility. In his last fight, we saw GGG take some fire power from Willie Monroe Jr, and if he ate those same shots from Lemieux he would probably be counting the lights, so I was incredibly impressed to see a patient Golovkin control the tempo with his jab. Now here's to hoping that we can really get GGG vs. a legit cream of the crop fighter next.
KingKongBundy
Guest
This mans a dam animal!!! a machine in every sense of the word.the saddest part about boxing though is yes it would be mouthwatering to see him fight the winner of Alvarez Cotto but look how long it took to get pac an floyd into the ring fair dinkum And lets be honest either of those blokes would be mad to fight this killing machine anyway.It was funny though all the people saying coming into the fight that GGG had a challenge on his hands. He pretty much holds all the belts in the middleweight division anyway so as you say super mid is his only option failing a Alvarez Cotto winner.And on Alvarez Cotto I think that fight could go to the score cards to Alvarez he's younger fitter and throws more punches, just cause there both very heavy handed doesn't mean anything, styles make fights they will both fight wary and will both get there defence on more than anything don't be surprised if it doesn't live up to the hype and its a points win.