The “Big Drama Show,” Gennadiy Golovkin made his way back into the ring for the first time since last November and made quick work of IBF mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta in seven rounds at the Seminole Hard Rock and Casino in Hollywood, Florida Friday night.
The time of the stoppage was 2:59, as the referee stopped the onslaught after four knockdowns.
The IBF middleweight championship fight that aired on DAZN had Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) back in action since his contest last October against Sergiy Derevyanchenko. And, he looked like the Golovkin of old in a contest that lasted shorter than the three national anthems they played beforehand.
That is because the underdog Szeremeta (21-1, 5 KO) had an issue with Golovkin’s jab from the opening bell and was getting timed up from it. The final sequence of the first round saw Golovkin land a nasty left hook that sent Szeremeta down to close out the round.
The second round looked more of the same, as he would lead in with a jab and then land something fierce right behind it. This led to a knockdown in the second round, as Szeremeta was caught with a shot to the ear.
Despite the onslaught early on, Szeremeta survived his way through to the fourth round of this contest, and anyone watching the broadcast on the streaming service DAZN was only a matter of when he would fall, not if. An overhand right in the fourth round sent him down for the third time, and there just wasn’t anything he could’ve done to get Golovkin off of him in this fight.
“He’s waiting to go home; he’s just waiting on you,” was the advice from Golovkin’s trainer, Johnathan Banks, after the fifth round of this fight.
That trip to the house happened for Szeremeta in the seventh round when he got caught with a jab, which knocked him down for the fourth time. After that, it was academic as the ref waved it off at the end of the seventh.
David Payne wrote for us that this was a moment that would see if Golovkin at age 38 could turn back the clock, and with this win, he certainly looked like it, but this was as I like to call “favorable opposition”. Let’s see if they give him n actual bout in 2021.
Mike Coppinger of The Athletic stated that a possible bout with Jaime Munguia next year is on the horizon.
