Fright Night: Gennady "GGG" Golovkin batters Curtis Stevens in New York
By Rich Mazon
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 03 Nov 2013
New York, NY - Two days after Halloween, when men, women and children of all ages roam the streets of New York in scary masks and costumes, The Theater of Madison Square Garden (MSG) housed a real-life monster in the man they call "GGG or Triple G."
Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan was a monster in his big robe and in white boxing trunks as he manhandled a game and brave challenger in Curtis Stevens (25-4, 18 KOs) of Brooklyn in eight rounds of their middleweight championship match.
Golovkin knocked down Stevens in the 2nd, with two wicked left hooks to Stevens' head, enough to stun a very game Stevens early in the bout.
The gutsy Stevens survived the knockdown and made it a fight when he unleashed combos on the Kazakh fighter in the succeeding rounds. Golovkin took them well and continued his assault on Stevens, and the close-to-sell-out crowd in Midtown Manhattan oozed with admiration because of the action in the ring.
Golovkin, now undefeated in 28 fights, with 25 of them by remarkable knockouts, was like a predator who stalked and punished Stevens in all parts of his body.
The 31 year old Kazakh fighter, whose reputation as one of the best and biggest punchers in the sport permeated before his introduction to America last year, threw 794 punches in the course of eight rounds, almost a hundred per round. He landed 293 of them and half of his 381 power punches.
And they were powerful indeed, the crowd cringed and reacted when those Golovkin shots landed on the gutsy Stevens.
Stevens was a spent fighter in Round 8, as he absorbed a myriad of punishing shots from Golovkin, prompting his corner to stop the fight, after his trainer looked at him with mercy after the round.
Golovkin retained his twin middleweight titles, thanked the crowd that attended the fight and smiled in front of the cameras after rendering a beating on his opponent.
The Kazakh fighter likes to smile, he has been smiling all week, even when Stevens was thrash talking and bullying him in the build-up to this fight.
Yes, monsters also love to smile.
PEREZ DECISIONS ABDUSALAMOV
The co-main event of the night, featured a hard-hitting contest between undefeated heavyweights, Magomed Abdusalamov of Makhachkala, Russia and Cuba's Mike Perez.
Perez, (20-0, 12 KOs) who now fights out of Ireland, remained the unbeaten fighter of the the two, when he scored a Unanimous Decision conquest of the now 18 -1 (18 KOs) Russian.
Bombs flew from both fighters early, as both southpaws tried to unload heavy artillery against each other. Perez utilized effective jabbing, followed by hellacious hooks that busted Abdusalamov's nose in only the 2nd mark of their 10 round bout.
Abdusalamov did not back down and managed to return fire despite his bleeding nose and evened up the fight by the 4th, with the help of his uppercuts and looping lefts.
But Perez's jabs and hooks were so effective that it produced a cut in Abdusalamov's left eye in the 8th. That, paired with exhaustion was detrimental to the Russian's attempt to make it a slug fest.
Perez garnered scores of 97-92, 97-92 and a close score of 95-94 to preserve his clean record and a regional US heavyweight strap in the process.
You can reach the author at rrmaze24@aol.com and is on Twitter @Freemazon910.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rich Mazon .
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