Madison Square Garden, New York City – Before a sold out crowd of over 20,000 fans, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31KOs) stopped David Lemieux (34-3, 31KOs) with an eight round beating to unify the WBA/IBO/IBF middleweight titles.
Golovkin came out using his jab, being cautious and working behind the long stick. Lemieux was unable to get off with much of anything as the jab was controlling him from start to finish.
Golovkin continued to use his jab in the second round to control Lemieux and not allow him to get with anything. He was also starting to land much bigger punches off the jab. Lemieux was starting to take more changes in the third round. He wasn’t having much defense but doing better than he did in the previous rounds.
The fourth round was more of Golovkin’s jab and he started tagging Lemieux with some heavy, heavy shots to shake the Canadian star up. Lemieux was taking more damage in the fifth round and had no answer for Golovkin’s jab and hard power shots. Lemieux was able to get in a few good shots and Golovkin fired back with some hard hooks to the head and body. Near the end of the fifth, Lemieux was knocked down with a hard shot to the body and Golovkin hit him while he was down. The ref warned Golovkin and have Lemieux a count.
Golovkin was back on the attack in the sixth. Lemieux landed a hard left that pushed Golovkin back. But then Golovkin started firing back with hard shots of his own to get Lemieux back under control. Near the end of the round, Lemieux started throwing and landing some good shots but nothing to cause Golovkin any hurt.
Lemieux was busted open at the start of the seventh. Golovkin’s jab continued to dominate the action and he was outpunching Lemieux. Golovkin continued to beat on him in the eight until the referee jumped in to wave it off.
