SONAHR: NEW YORK CITY – October 18, 2015 – Going into Saturday?s middleweight title-unification showdown with the formidable Gennady (GGG) Golovkin, IBF title-holder David Lemieux carried the proverbial ?puncher?s chance? into the ring. But against an opponent like GGG, who is highly adept at both boxing and slugging, a ?puncher?s chance? is the same thing as no chance at all.
That point was proven on Saturday. After eight rounds of mostly-controlled mayhem, Lemieux was a helpless hulk in need of rescuing by the referee. As a result of the latest in a string of 21 straight beatdowns, Golovkin added Lemieux?s IBF belt to his collection. Golovkin already holds the WBA?s ?super? title, a convention which allows that organization to add an extra ?regular? champion to its roster when one of its title-holders wins one or more unification contests against rival organizations? champions. Got that? To its credit (or discredit), the WBA has been singularly creative in manufacturing world titles, i.e., opportunities to collect more sanctioning fees and add to the confusion of long-suffering boxing fans.
Getting back to Golovkin-Lemieux ? this was a typical GGG slaughter, combining finesse and brutality in equal measure. There was, however, an unfortunate juncture in the fight.
During the fifth round, Golovkin scored the bout?s only knockdown when Lemieux took a knee. Then GGG hit Lemieux while he was down. That was a blatant foul, and it could have cost Golovkin his titles. Such an outcome would have been unsatisfactory, to say the least. But referee Steve Willis did not disqualify Golovkin, and the fight continued to its inevitable conclusion.
Given Golovkin?s command of technique, and his extensive professional and amateur experience, this lapse in judgment is hard to fathom. We can only hope it was just a momentary aberration. If there is a next time, another referee might not be so forgiving.
And Golovkin has some potentially-lucrative ?next times? looming on the horizon. The winners of upcoming title clashes between Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto, and Andy Lee and Billy Joe Saunders, will yield credible opponents for Golovkin in 2016. Whether or not any of those four has a better chance than Lemieux of defeating GGG is another matter.
Golovkin has yet to taste defeat as a professional, compiling a 34-0 ledger with 31 knockouts. He is the best middleweight to hold the title since the era of Bernard Hopkins. And, indeed, it would take a punch-whisperer like B-Hop to defeat Golovkin. Either that, or someone who can match his boxer/puncher skill set, such as Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
However, there is neither a Hopkins nor a Hagler in sight these days. That means Golovkin?s reign of terror at 160 lbs will continue until he either retires or moves up to super-middleweight, or even light-heavyweight.
Golovkin vs. Andre Ward? Golovkin vs. Sergey Kovalev? Those are fights fans would break down the doors to see.
