In what’s become a violent but beautiful routine, middleweight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin scored yet another dominating knockout Saturday in front of 20,548 screaming fans at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The opponent this time, Canadian David Lemieux, came into the fight with the IBF middleweight belt and the swagger of a fighter who expected to win.
He didn’t win the fight and he didn’t win a round on any judge’s scorecard. Instead, Golovkin beat him up, knocked him down in the fifth round and stopped him along the ropes in the eighth after Lemieux visibly elected to not go on. Simply put: it was yet another lopsided, if expected, performance from boxing’s newest star.
Final punch statistics attested to Golovkin’s performance; he connected with nearly 60% of his power punches (58%) and landed more than half of all of the punches he threw (280 of 549). He even jabs more than average—21 per round, four times the middleweight average.
All of those shots were on display late Saturday as Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) had his way with the game but overmatched Lemieux.
Lemiuex (34-3, 31 KOs) started the fight aggressively. He banged Golovkin to the body and head while remaining on the outside. Golovkin took his time, however, and he started the second with a left hook and ended it with a beautiful straight right into Lemieux’s mouth. In between, Lemieux tried to repeat his movement from the first but Golovkin began to cut the ring off and land more often.
Golovkin scored with a powerful left hook in the fourth and followed up with a right that had the crowd roaring in anticipation of a knockout. Lemieux absorbed additional damage along the ropes but instead of crumbling, waved Golovkin in for more. “GGG” obliged him minutes later in the fifth when he dropped Lemieux with an uppercut-body shot combination. Golovkin got too excited as he moved in for the knockout and he wound up hitting Lemieux while the fighter had his knee on the canvas. He immediately apologized for the infraction and referee Steve Willis decided against docking a point.
It wouldn’t have mattered anyway because when Lemieux rose he had a beaten look on his face. He made it through the round and even landed a good left in the sixth but by the seventh he was bruised and bleeding from the nose and Willis had him examined by the ringside physician.
The fight went into the eighth but the ending was near and after Lemieux absorbed another hard combination he backtracked into the ropes and shook his head sideways, prompting Willis to call an ending to the carnage 92 seconds into the round.---Matt Richardson
Chocolatito Gonzales demolishes Brian Villoria
Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez put his WBC flyweight on the line against Brian “Hawaiian Punch” Villoria in the main co-feature of the pay-per-view event. Gonzalez, who is seen as one of the top contenders in the pound-for-pound rankings, took this fight as seriously as anyone could expect, delivering Villoria’s first knockdown and TKO defeat.
With the crowd firmly behind him, Gonzalez kept his composure and started strongly, delivering an inside right uppercut that wowed the crowd in attendance and gave everyone a taste of what was to come.
Gonzalez kept up the pressure, giving Villoria little room to breathe and eventually delivered a knockdown in the third round with a hook to the body. Gonzalez followed up with a barrage of hooks but Villoria withstood the pressure to see out the round.
Villoria stayed on his feet for round four, recovering from what was now considered to be a flash knockdown but still failed to make a dent in Gonzalez’s defense, wildly missing with his overhand hooks.
Entering the middle rounds, Gonzalez continued to lead with his jab while loading up his hook to push back Villoria and remind him of the power advantage he holds.
By the sixth round, Villoria was showing signs of wear and tear, pinned against the ropes by Gonzalez and being on the wrong end of Gonzalez’s combos to the body. The punishment continued well into the ninth round, compelling the doctor at ringside to take a close look at Villoria before letting him continue. Turns out that was just prolonging the eventual outcome as the referee saved Villoria from any further punishment towards the end of the ninth round.
The official time of the stoppage was 2:53 in round nine. Villoria comes up short again in a world title fight and drops to 36-5, 22 KOs while Gonzalez maintains his unbeaten record and improves to 44-0 with 38 KOs.
Villoria afterwards stated his admiration for Gonazlez and how he felt the action was stopped prematurely: “Roman is a tremendous fighter. I have nothing but respect for him. I had prepared for a different Roman and he surprised me with his defense and his speed. I do feel like the fight was stopped prematurely, I feel good and can keep going. If I had an opportunity to take him on again I would. I feel like I learned a lot today and would use that for the next time around.”
Gonzalez was pleased with his performance, explaining how he had a great training camp and that this victory was no surprise. “I was in great shape, my conditioning was terrific, we trained very hard in Costa Rica and had great sparring,” said Gonzalez. “Brian is a great champion, but tonight I was the better man. Thanks to HBO, Mr. Honda and K2 Promotions. I fight for the people of Nicaragua and this is their victory.”---Arvin Nundloll
Luis Ortiz captures Interim title
In a fight for the vacant interim WBA heavyweight title Luis Ortiz knocked out Matias Ariel Vidondo in three rounds. Ortiz (23-0, 20 KOs) dominated the brief encounter. He dropped Vidondo twice: First in the second and again in the third, the latter knockdown prompting referee Shada Murdaugh to call a halt at the 17-second mark of the frame. A right rocked Vidondo (20-2-1, 18 KOs) into the ropes in the second and when he came forward another right connected to his face, dropping him to the canvas. He rose unsteadily but there was little time left in the round for Ortiz to capitalize. It didn’t take him too long in the next round, though. A right over the guard of Vidondo missed but a follow-up straight left as Vidondo backed up connected and it dropped the Argentinean backwards into the ropes and onto his belly. Murdaugh didn’t issue a count and instead elected to immediately call the fight off.
Final punch stats illustrated Ortiz’s clear dominance: he connected with 77% of his power punches (45% overall). Vidondo, meantime, connected with a total of eight shots and only landed a single jab.
With the win, Ortiz becomes the third fighter to hold the WBA belt in the same weight class (albeit different “versions”). Recognized undisputed champ Wladimir Klitschko has the “super” form while former title-holder Ruslan Chagaev has the regular one.---Matt Richardson
Johnson next in line for GGG
Opening up the pay-per-view telecast, Tureano Johnson and Eamonn O’Kane duked it out in an IBF Middleweight Title eliminator scheduled for twelve rounds.
Johnson began the fight intent on delivering a statement to the middleweight division and didn’t disappoint, knocking down O’Kane with an overhand right to the ear in the first round and again with his continued pressure. What appeared as a potential easy win for Johnson transformed into a brawl with O’Kane willing to take Johnson’s best shots and exchange those for some of his own leather, starting in round three where he stood his ground.
Coming into the middle rounds, O’Kane maintained his composure and began boxing sensibly, keeping his guard high but ultimately eating Johnson’s jabs, causing O’Kane’s head to snap back frequently.
Round eight delivered the best round for O’Kane, as he pegged back Johnson and was able to dictate the pace, closing down the distance and fighting on the inside.
Johnson however, continued with his more precise boxing, landing his jab and using his footwork to move around the ring and pick off O’Kane from a distance. Sensing he was behind on the cards, O’Kane increased his punch output, trying to land a knockout punch that could propel him to stardom. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be as the judges settled the matter with the scores reading 118-108, 117-109 and 119-107 to Johnson.
Johnson now moves to 18-2, 13 KOs while O’Kane drops to 17-2-1 with 5 KOs. Arvin Nundloll
Article Courtesy of Fightnews