Knockout artist Golovkin shown demolishing Matthew Macklin. Saturday, can one pitbull take meat from another?
[BoxingGlove Notes]
A Monsters’ Brawl Post-Halloween
Two of the hardest punching middleweights of all times, Gennady “3G” Golovkin and Curtis “Showtime” Stevens, will clash in runaway freight train fashion on Saturday, November 2, at the Mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden.
Golovkin, 27-0, 24 knockouts, of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, will be defending both, his W.B.A. and I.B.O. Middleweight Titles against the current, N.F.B.A. Middleweight Champion, Stevens, of Brownsville, Brooklyn, who sports a 25-3 record with 18 k.o.’s.
The entire boxing community is predicting that the fight will not go the 12-round distance because of 3G’s and Showtime’s explosive punching powers that comes from as far away as Kazakhstan, or Brownsville.
Both boast knockout strength. Any opponents that survived and went the distance with either was fortunate, or absorbed a worse fistic punishment than a knockout.
Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin is his real name; and that is why he is called Triple G or 3G. Born on April 8, 1982, of a Russian coal miner father and a Korean mother; the 3rd of 4 brothers.
His two older brothers urged him to box older men in the streets to toughen him up and that was the beginning of his love of boxing and he continued boxing after his brothers who had joined the Russian army were killed in action.
Three G continued fighting amateur in world competitions winning: the Junior World Championships as a Light Welterweight in 2000; the Asian Games as a Light Middleweight in 2002; the World Championship Games in 2004, and as a Middleweight. As a member of the 2004 Kazakhstani Olympic team he only earned a silver Medal.
Overall his amateur career was an outstanding one, of 345 victories and only five defeats. Among those fighters that 3G defeated in amateur competitions are outstanding professionals today like: Lucian Bute; Andre Dirrell; and, Andy Lee.
After he turned pro on May 6, 2005, he won his first 19 fights, 16 by knockouts attesting power. He has an 89% knockout ratio among all active fighters at all weight levels with 14 straight knockouts which include eight title defenses.
He won his first world title in 2009, the W.B.A.’s vacant Interim Middleweight Title and then the in 2011 he won the I.B.O. Middleweight title.
So who is Curtis Stevens who dares?
Well with bad intentions and every means possible he hopes to take away not only 3G’s perfect record but walk away with the W.B.A. and I.B.O. belts.
A pit bull snatching meat from a pitbull.
Curtis Stevens is a hard punching young middleweight, at only 28, who after an outstanding amateur career, New York Golden Gloves titles, in 2002, was named United States Amateur Light Heavyweight Champion. “When I won my first Golden Gloves title, here in the Garden I felt like I was on top of the world,” he says. “Imagine how I feel now coming back to win a world title in the very same place, Madison Square Garden, in front of all my friends and in my home, New York.”
Well we will find out in a matter of hours.
He had an impressive amateur career of close to 100 fights, earning the reputation of being a knockout artist. When Stevens finally turned to the professional ranks, he went on a 13 fight winning streak while scoring 11 k.o.’s.
Stevens actually started boxing at the behest of his uncle and Trainer Andre Rozier, who baby sat him while his sister went to work. Rozier, already an accomplished boxing trainer, took little Curtis at age eight, to the gym where he trained, to teach him some sports discipline, and boxing was the best format.
As he grew up, Stevens became an outstanding football star-middle linebacker while he attended Samuel J. Tilden High School in Brooklyn. So turning to boxing was as easy a transition from tackling his opponents on the grid iron, to scoring so many knockouts in the ring.
The late Ken Norton was an outstanding football player but he chose boxing and became Heavyweight champ of the world. Is this a positive omen for Stevens?
Stevens, of Panamanian descent, being born and raised in Brooklyn, is following in the foot-steps of other great amateur and professional boxers from Brownsville, who became world champs: Mike Tyson, Zab Judah, Riddick Bowe to name just a few.
He reminds me of a long-forgotten hard hitting search-and-destroy middleweight, Rory Calhoun, also a Brooklyn product. Calhoun never won a world title but he was among the hardest hitting middleweights of that era, who fought every one, scoring 21 knockouts in 45 fights, while losing only 15 fights.
Gennady who looks very frail, and nerdy like Clark Kent, says “After my world travels defending my titles, I am finally fighting and defending my titles in the Mecca of boxing Madison Square Garden like I always wanted to. The fight will not go the distance because we both hit too hard. Who is going to land the first meaningful punch? I know that it will be me.”
“I know that I am the underdog, 11-1,” says Stevens, “but that gives me more incentive to prove the betters wrong. So if you bet your home against me, come Sunday morning, you’ll be ‘homeless’.”
The promoters were correct in naming this title fight “Monsters Collide.”
I will go out on a perennial limb: I feel Stevens has a very thin but strong edge over Golovkin because of the fire in his belly determination to prove everyone against him wrong.
He’ll be tougher up close and personal. He could hurt Golovkin early and eventually knock him out by the 10th round. In Gennady, I detect a complacency or over confidence that this fight will be just as easy as all of his other 27.
On the undercard bouts:
We have Mike Perez, 19-0, 12 knockouts, from Cuba vs. Magomed Abdusalamov, 18-0, 18 k.o.’s, from Russia, fighting for the vacant Heavyweight US NBC Championship.
Ola Afolabi,19-3-4, 9 k.o.’s, London, England vs. Lukasz Janik , 26-1, 14 knockouts, Jelenia, Poland, a 12 round match for the vacant I.B.O. Cruiserweight World Crown.
Dusty Harrison 17-0, 10 knockouts, Washington, D.C. vs. Josh Torres, 12-2-1, 5 k.o.’s, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 10 rounds for the Welterweight W.B.C.
Youth Title, Joel Diaz, Jr. 12-0, 11 knockouts, Palmdale, California, vs. Bryne Green, 7-6-1, 3 k.o.’s, Vineland, New Jersey in a 6 round junior Lightweight match.
Opening bout, Isa Akbarbayev, 10-0,7k.o.’s, Almaty, Kazakhstan, vs. Brian Clookey, 4-0-2, 2 k.o.’s Chase Mills, New York.
Don’t blink, or go to the bathroom when the main event starts.
