In what was billed as the biggest test of rising star Gennady Golovkin’s career, the Kazakh produced yet more compelling evidence he is destined for sporting superstardom.
– Golovkin pummels Lemieux to claim title
– Conlan survives to take AIBA world title
– Pacquiao sets sights on 2016 retirement
The Kazakh completely outclassed David Lemieux with a masterful combination of pure boxing and clinical power punching to seize the Canadian’s IBF middleweight title and add it to his own WBA strap.
And with the WBC making him their ‘interim’ champion, he is now the mandatory challenger to the winner of next month’s blockbuster between holder Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez.
Up until Saturday night, ‘Triple G’, now 34-0 with 31 knockouts, was getting by feasting on the fringes of the 160-pound division. It had provided a stunning highlight reel but not the validation he so desperately wants.
Finally, in Lemieux, a fighter emboldened by promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s determination to take a stance against harmful strategic matchmaking, he found another belt holder game enough to face him and satisfy his craving for unification bouts.
With Golovkin now 33 years old, it couldn’t come quickly enough. Golovkin’s team and his backers at HBO are convinced he can transcend boxing and become a huge crossover star, his effortless charm and fan-friendly all-action style proving an enticing combination.
His appearance last week in an Apple Watch commercial (yes, a boxer in an Apple advert), plus the way a sold out Madison Square Garden went wild for him on Saturday, underlines his mainstream appeal and that the decision to elevate him to pay-per-view main event status was well-timed.
Golovkin says he wants to meet the winner of Canelo vs Cotto. TRY DUCKING HIM NOW
— Gianni Verschueren (@ReverschPass) October 18, 2015
Golovkin, who was also visited in his dressing room by Donald Trump, certainly upheld his part of the deal. It might not have been the “big drama show” that a smiling Triple G often talks of in his broken English, but it was a ‘one-man show’ of such brilliance that nobody felt shortchanged.
It was clear from the early exchanges he was several levels above Lemieux, who struggled all night to get in range, throw his own trademark bombs and turn it into the anticipated slugfest.
Instead he ate jab after jab after jab. By the end, the blood pouring from his nose and mouth showed the damage inflicted by 170 left leads. That’s 21 jabs per round, four times the middleweight average.
It had the desired effect with Lemieux softened and vulnerable, particularly to the left hook to the body which has been a signature of Golovkin’s. Indeed it was the same punch that did for Matthew Macklin which put Lemieux down in the fifth.
With his wind taken from him, the 26-year-old dropped to a knee, and Golovkin was in fact fortunate not to lose a point for hitting him after he had gone down.
Lemieux rallied bravely in the sixth but it couldn’t last and referee Steve Willis mercifully waved it off with him taking a beating on the ropes in the eighth.
A passing mention of Floyd Mayweather in Triple G’s post-fight interview brought lusty booing in MSG and the ringside De La Hoya was likely leading it.
A fierce critic of the recently-retired American’s hand-picking of opponents, he spoke again pre-fight about a new era where the best fight the best, where fighters no longer leave fans cold just to protect a record.
So far, so good, and it’s precisely why Triple G will be cheering for Canelo on November 21. A natural welterweight, you get the impression Cotto would vacate and move down rather than face Golovkin.
The bigger Alvarez, signed to Golden Boy, is far more likely to end up in the ring with the Kazakh. Can it happen?
“Absolutely,” said De La Hoya. “That’s a fight that should be made. I have no reason not to make it. Canelo wants to fight him, so why not?”
Such a fight would pit the sport’s two most popular fighters and make 2016 truly a year of boxing to look forward to.
