Golovkin, right, delivers the hurt
[BoxingGlove Notes]
“34 tried and 34 failed;” does that sound familiar?
Our recently retired ring icon, his Majesty-of-boxing, Floyd Money Mayweather, Jr. who recently made a goodwill trip to Cuba, created that phrase after every one of his fights up until the last one when it was “49 tried and 49 failed.”
After his brutal annihilation of his opponent, Boxing Promoters are starting to hope that maybe Gennady 3G Golovkin is the new Mayweather. Triple-G is 34-0, 31 knockouts and now the sole owner of 4 world crowns; the W.B.A., W.B.C. , I.B.O., and after Friday’s display, David Lemieuxs, I.B.F. belt. On a cold Saturday night, October 17, at Madison Square Garden, New York City, a sellout crowd of 21,000 including Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump witnessed that arguable crowning.
In a title unification championship fight 3G Golovkin a 16-1 betting favorite, and as predicted by his trainer, Abel Sanchez, fulfilled his dream of becoming the most dominant middleweight in the world. From his first jab after the first bell, he thoroughly dominated who was supposed to be his most dangerous opponent, David Lemieux who boasts a 34-3, 31 k.o.s record.
It was a masterful display of offense and defense by 3G facing Lemieux who had displayed equal knockout punching power and rugged aggressiveness in his past fights. Triple-G undressed Lemieux and made him look ordinary. Sadly, Lemieux looked more like a sacrificial lamb who was fooled or fooled himself into thinking that he could defeat this Kazakhstan fighting machine of destruction; 3G has now knocked out 21 opponents in a row.
Lemieux rushed out from round 1 as he predicted, trying to land meaningful round-house punches on 3G, but he missed badly from round to round resembling, Don Quixotes mystical windmill. Golovkin, round-to-round just calmly landed his strong piston-like jabs that reminded me of 2 ring greats of the past, Sugar Ray Robinson and Larry Holmes, as he then sporadically landed right hands and left hooks on Lemieuxs head and body. By the 5th round Lemieux was already bleeding from his mouth, and his nose, which looked broken.
His bruised face also displayed the beating he was absorbing from Golovkin, as he began to realize that he was facing defeat. In that very same 5th round 3G hit Lemieux with a left hook to the body causing him so much pain he actually dropped to his knees. To his credit, Lemieux who certainly knew defeat was imminent, did not pretend to be hurt when 3G appeared to deliver a late hit when he was down–lesser fighters would have feigned pain praying for disqualification og his opponent.
Yet, that was really the beginning of the end of this fight as the body shots and jabs and hard rights had destroyed Lemieux. Mercifully it was all stopped by referee, Steven Smith at 1: 32 of the 8th round, after Lemieux absorbed another vicious body punch, and was not able to defend himself, nor, fight back while leaning on the ropes. A courageous Lemieux protested but he really was in no condition to continue to fight, and if allowed he wouldve been badly hurt. 3G had turned into a relentless punishing hunter of his prey, David Lemieux.
Lemieux’s future in the ring although he ran into a fistic roadblock-Golovkin-is still on the positive side since he is only 26 years of age and has a good fighting record with a high knockout ratio. He stated that he wanted a rematch. ”Next time it would be different because I now know how to fight Gennady,” Lemieux claimed.
We have our doubts since he is not an objective observer of the beating we saw. Gennady Golovkins future according Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, is very bright because he is now the mandatory challenger against the winner of the Canelo Alvarez versus Miguel Cotto W.B.C. Middleweight title fight, on November 21, 2015, in Las Vegas. In the post-fight ring interview Golovkin stated:”I am glad I gave the fans a good fight that they wanted, and now I want to move on and unify all of the middleweight titles.”
The remaining 6 fights on scheduled were all action packed with 3 of the 4 championship fights ending in knockouts. The highly regarded and newly named a pound for pound fighter, Roman Chocolatito-Little Chocolate- Gonzalez, T.K.O.d former 2 time world champ and ex-Olympian, Brian The Hawaiian Punch Viloria retaining his W.B.C. Flyweight Title, at 2:50 seconds of the 9th round, living up to his two-fisted reputation.
Chocolatito Gonzalez a hard punching and speedy fighting machine battered Viloria from the opening bell with a combination of up and down-elevator style-head and body non-stop punches, causing the halt to the one sided fight.
Gonzalez a first time visitor to the Mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden did not suffer any stage fright as he went about his business of breaking down his opponent just like the other previous 37 knockout victims remaining undefeated at 44-0, 38 k.o.s.
It seemed like he was right at home. Cuban Heavyweight Luis Ortiz, 22-0, 19 knockouts, who calls himself The Real King Kong, made quick work of another import, this one from Argentina, Matias Ariel Vidondo, 20-1-1, 18 k.o.s, by knockout at 17 seconds of the 3rd round as Vidondo laid down face first on the canvass. Ortiz a hard hitting left handed fighter, won the Vacant W.B.A. Interim Heavyweight Crown. Tureano Johnson from the Bahamas scored a unanimous decision win over a tough Eamonn OKane from Ireland, winning the I.B.F. 160 eliminator Title by a count of 119-107, 118-108, 117-109, on all of the 3 Judges score cards.
Maurice Hooker, Dallas, Texas won a split 10 round decision over, Ghislain Maduma Montreal, Canada winning the N.A.B.O. Jr. Welterweight Title , Lamont Roach, Jr., Washington, D.C. was the unanimous decision winner over Jose Bustos, Mexico in a 6 round Lightweight fight, and Ruslan Madiyev, 135 pounds, from Kazakhstan, won a unanimous decision over Sean Gee, Chicago, Ill. In a 4 round fight.
Editorial Comment: The sell-out crowd fight fans that included famous personalities such as Rosie Perez, former world boxing champs, Lennox Lewis, Winky Wright, current Light Heavyweight Champion, Sergey Kovalev, and Roberto Duran, who received a standing ovation, went home satisfied by one of the best fight cards of the year.
The 4 promotion companies, K2, GGG, Eye of the Tiger, and Golden Boy should be very proud of this great fight card, and giving the fans a long awaited, monies worth in fights. It is hope that they can continue, not only through the end of this year but for years to come. Golden Boy Promotions President, Oscar De La Hoya stated that he has already started on trying to contract the winner of Canelo vs Cotto to agree to fight Gennady Golovkin sometime in the year 2016 to crown one middleweight champ like the great Bernard Hopkins was for many years, with 20 successful title defenses.
Black Star News salutes all of the personnel including Madison Square Garden involved in this fight promotion, for supporting Breast Cancer Awareness month not only by a substantial donation, but also allowing the boxers to wear pink, including the gloves.
