Golovkin vs. David Lemieux.
This Saturday night boxing fans will be treated to an epic clash as middleweight kingpin Gennady Golovkin faces his biggest test yet in the big punching Canadian David Lemieux. Golovkin?s WBA middleweight title along with Lemieux?s IBF title will be for the taking.
The fight which is taking place at Madison Square Garden will be live on Boxnation, coverage beginning at 2 am.
Though Golovkin is a solid favourite, Lemieux is a feared puncher and very much a live dog.
The fight is the Kazakh puncher?s first pay-per-view telecast and undoubtedly his biggest test to date. Last time out Golovkin beat up a brave and defiant Willie Monroe for six rounds before he scored a brutal and typical stoppage.
Golovkin is one of the most popular fighter?s in the entire sport. Since he rose to prominence in 2012, with a fifth round mugging of Grzegorz Proksa, both hardcore and casual fans alike seemingly can?t get enough of him.
He is undoubtedly a special fighter with a unique skillset based around extraordinary power punching capability?s rarely seen in the middleweight division. Indeed ?GGG?, as he is known, boasts the highest KO ratio in middleweight history.
Aside from his power Golovkin also possesses superb boxing skills, honed during his time as an amateur standout. As a member of the Kazakh amateur team for several years before turning pro Golovkin amassed an amateur record of 345-5 with two world championships to his name and also an Olympic silver medal.
Since turning pro, Gennady Golovkin?s natural raw power and boxing skillset have been cultivated by noted trainer Abel Sanchez, who has done an excellent job in bringing Golovkin along throughout his pro career.
Triple G is a joy to watch inside the ropes. He charges forward from the opening bell always maintaining perfect balance. With a high guard he stalks his opponent before unleashing powerful and deadly accurate bombs to the head and body.
Golovkin?s greatest strength is undoubtedly his power but his accuracy and timing is also something to behold. He also has an exceptional judgement of distance and closes the distance between himself and opponents very swiftly. Where he lacks in hand speed he makes up for in timing.
His punching arsenal is quite varied as he willl throw a variety of shots to the head and body. Strangely enough every punch he throws, even his jab, seems to have considerable power in it, and he requires very little space to produce force. The downward left hook he utilised to knock out Marco Antonio Rubio demonstrated Golovkin?s uncanny ability to generate power from the most unusual of angles.
David Lemieux has had a different rise to prominence to Golovkin. The Quebec native was not an amateur standout and suffered some mid-career setbacks to Marco Antonio Rubio, who knocked him out, and the little known Joachim Alcine, who beat him by majority decision. Both loses came in 2011.
However, since then Lemieux has turned his career around and has had nine wins in a row, seven coming by stoppage. Some of his improvement surely has to with a change of trainer to the highly regarded Canadian Marc Ramsey.
Lemieux?s three previous fights in particular have come against decent opposition. In 2014 he dominated Fernando Guerrero, a former victim of Peter Quillin, to a third round knockout. This was followed by a hard-fought stoppage over rugged Philadelphian, Gabriel Rosado. His best win, however, came last June when he dominated a skilful Hassan N?Dam on the way to earning a wide unanimous decision.
Lemieux, like Golovkin is also a fan favourite who punches with exceptional power. In fact some wise and respected observers in the boxing community have suggested that Lemieux possesses more power than Golovkin. This may be true.
Lemieux?s most potent weapon is thought to be his straight right hand but he also possesses a powerful left hook, which he often uses to blast opponents to the ring surface.
This fight will undoubtedly be a war as long as it lasts. Neither fighter likes to fight in reverse and they both love to throw bombs.
However, I think the difference here will be Gennady Golovkin?s well-rounded ability. Not only does he punch extremely hard but he also punches with deadly accuracy. He is simply the more comprehensive of the two fighters and is constantly perfectly balanced.
He has also shown no signs up to this point of a weakness in durability and his chin seems to be carved from granite. While Lemieux can be hurt and stopped.
I think both fighters will be in it for the long haul with Golovkin eventually grinding Lemieux down and stopping him by the tenth round. Maybe even a couple of rounds earlier. No matter what happens, though, the bout should be an entertaining one while it lasts.
