Gennady Golovkin showed boxing is alive and well, and he wasn't the only one...
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — If every televised card was like the one Saturday on HBO, boxing might regain the spot it held in the first half of the 20th century as one of the three major sports in the U.S. Two of the finest fighters in the world thrilled a raucous crowd of 12,372 at The Forum with a pair of spectacular knockouts.
Fans didn’t want to leave after the main event, as Gennady Golovkin gave them what they wanted by stopping Willie Monroe Jr. at 45 seconds of the sixth round in a bout for the WBA middleweight title. He had a lot to live up to, as flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez was sensational in a second-round stoppage of Edgar Sosa in the opener of the HBO doubleheader.
They are without question two of the finest fighters in the world and each went out and performed brilliantly. Combined, they’re 76-0 with 67 knockouts.
“That was a very good drama show,” said Golovkin, uttering one of his familiar and increasingly popular lines.
Indeed it was. Golovkin dumped Monroe twice in the second, and then floored him again in the sixth with a crushing left after a big flurry. Monroe barely beat the count. When referee Jack Reiss asked him if he wanted to continue, Monroe said, “I’m done.”
Had he gone on, he would have simply taken a battering from a man who not only is one of the world’s best fighters, but who increasingly is becoming one of its most popular. Golovkin, one of the game’s hardest hitters, was teeing off on Monroe for much of the fight. He landed 49 percent of his power shots, connecting on 116 of 238 punches.
After Gonzalez’s second-round decimation of Sosa, Golovkin appeared to be on the verge of matching him. But he said he let Monroe hang around in order to give the appreciative crowd more action.
“I felt very strong tonight,” Golovkin said. “I knocked him down twice but I didn’t want an easy round the next round. I wanted to keep working in the fight.”
The only depressing thought to come out of Saturday’s show is the lack of immediate big-fight options for Golovkin, who is desperately seeking a significant bout. He holds the WBA middleweight belt as well as the interim WBC crown, and is hopeful of a bout with either WBC king Miguel Cotto or Canelo Alvarez.
But Cotto has a June 6 defense against Daniel Geale and Golden Boy Promotions is trying to pit Alvarez with Cotto later in the year. That leaves Golovkin on the outside looking in, unless a deal for a bout against long-inactive super middleweight champion Andre Ward can be made. Ward hasn’t fought since November 2013 and is returning on June 20 in a tune-up fight at a catch-weight of 172 pounds against Paul Smith.
Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler said the financial demands of Ward would make that a tough fight to make at this point because it would have to go onto pay-per-view. Loeffler said he hasn’t spoken to Alvarez promoter Oscar De La Hoya, but said he was told by HBO Sports officials that De La Hoya believes that fight needs to be built. Yahoo Sports phoned De La Hoya for comment, but he didn’t pick up or return a message.
When Alvarez was asked after blowing out James Kirkland in Houston a week earlier about fighting Golovkin, he said he would be interested but spoke of it being in the future instead of in the short-term.
Golovkin, now 33-0 with 30 knockouts, is considerably more impatient. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said if Cotto beats Geale, he’d allow him to face Alvarez on the condition that they both sign a contract to then subsequently defend against Golovkin.
That would put that fight most likely into 2016, but Golovkin would prefer to do it much quicker.
“I don’t want easy fights,” Golovkin said. “I’m ready now. Not the future, but now. I want to fight Canelo or Cotto. I want to fight them now. After Canelo or Cotto, then Andre Ward can go.” He later said he thought it would be a good fight for Cinco de Mayo in 2016, when major bouts are often held.
If one of those fights can’t be made for Golovkin’s next outing, Loeffler said he would continue to stay active, likely fighting in Europe in September and possibly Las Vegas in December.
Golovkin is becoming a big-enough attraction that the crowd doesn’t seem to mind his relatively low level of competition to this point. People like action and knockouts and Golovkin delivers both each time out.
“I loved the energy of this crowd,” Loeffler said. “ … [If we can’t get Cotto or Canelo next], then we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing. The formula is working. People love to see him fight, regardless of who he fights.”
And they’ll soon learn to love Gonzalez, who just might be the best fighter pound-for-pound in the world. Gonzalez showed the complete game on Saturday in dominating Sosa, and has a number of big fights available. He said he wants rival Juan Francisco Estrada next, hopefully on HBO, in a rematch of a good, close bout from 2012.
The boxing business will boom if the top fighters continue to seek each other out and perform the way that Golovkin and Gonzalez did on Saturday.
Boxing is on a roll, but it needs those kinds of fights and performance to be the rule, not the exception.
