In front of a sold-out crowd of 20,548 at Madison Square Garden, middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin delivered in his pay-per-view premiere.
The Kazakh, 33, stopped former IBF middleweight titleholder David Lemieux in a title unification fight on Saturday.
The fight was billed as a modern Hagler-Hearns, but anyone who knows boxing knew that was not going to be the case.
Judging from Lemieux’s TKO of Gabriel Rosado, the guy has power without a doubt, but his power is only useful when his opponent is perpendicular to him, and not firing much in return.
With 21 consecutive knockouts, Golovkin is not that type of fighter; he was two-three echelons above Lemieux, and it was painfully pronounced.
Golovkin landed an astonishing 51 percent of his total punches and an even more sublime 58 percent of his power shots.
Given the true ferity of Golovkin, Lemieux deserves more credit just for making it past the first half of the fight, let alone three rounds that seemed like when many fans expected the fight to come to a halt.
Of course everyone wants to see Golovkin fight the winner of Cotto-Canelo, which takes place Nov. 21 in Las Vegas, but if Cotto wins the fight, does that alleviate the chances of Golovkin becoming a superstar?
Okay, put down the pitchforks. Golovkin’s pretty much a superstar now, but a superstar really is not a superstar until he can perform in a mega-fight, and win in that mega-fight.
Let’s say Cotto wins the fight. Yes, Cotto will likely shove another catch-weight down our throats, but this is a man that criticized Antonio Margarito for his performance against Manny Pacquiao because he dangerously risked his health.
Prior to his rematch with the highly-controversial boxer, both fighters spoke with HBO’s Max Kellerman on the popular series “Face Off.”
“Stupid,” Cotto responded when asked by Kellerman to evaluate Margarito’s performance against Pacquiao, which left the Mexican with two broken orbital bones.
“My health is the most important thing in my life. I have four kids; a beautiful family, it’s just my job.”
If that’s the case, if Cotto’s health is the most important thing in his life, the Golovkin fight may never happen. He could retire with his health and finances intact and be happy he did not get clobbered.
If it does not happen, it will not be the first time. George Foreman and Mike Tyson were supposed to fight in 1990, but it never happened
If Cotto does offer a fight, it’s likely going to be at a catch-weight and Golovkin may not be willing to drop a lot of weight especially since he is the real king of the middleweight division.
Cotto is not a natural middleweight, and he is not even a natural super welterweight at that.
If boxing fans really want to see Golovkin get tested in his next fight or two, whatever it ends up being, boxing needs Canelo to beat Cotto.
Furthermore, Cotto’s Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach has said that he may retire after the Cotto fight if he wins. Whether he was sarcastic or being serious remains to be seen.
Naturally, a Cotto victory would make a Golovkin-Canelo clash to all intents and purposes, futile.
But if Canelo manages to win, you bet Oscar De La Hoya is going to make the Golovkin fight happen, and unlike Mayweather-Pacquiao, it is going to deliver.
This means positive exposure for our sport and when that happens, it means the fans will get treated to more of the best fighters fighting the best.
– Ryan O’Hara @OHaraSports
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