By Thomas Gerbasi
NEW YORK -– It wasn't the back and forth war many hoped for, but Gennady Golovkin and David Lemieux gave a sold out crowd of 20,548 at Madison Square Garden a fight Saturday night, and through 34 of those fights, it's proven impossible to beat Kazakhstan's “GGG,” who added another victory and another middleweight title belt to his collection, stopping Lemieux in nine rounds.
The victory made Golovkin the IBF, interim WBC, WBA Super World, and IBO middleweight champion if you pay attention to such things, but more importantly, it established the 33-year-old knockout artist as a legitimate draw, removing any perceived obstacles to Golovkin being in line for the winner of next month's Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Alvarez bout.
And he did it in typical punishing style, taking the “Drama” out of his “Big Drama Show” early on.
The two traded jabs throughout the first half of the opening round, Lemieux largely abandoning that strategy after eating too many of them from Golovkin, who began mixing in power shots as the round progressed, easily putting the first three-minute session in his corner.
With Lemieux charging out of his corner to begin round two, Golovkin opted to stop his foes charge with more flush shots. Mission accomplished. The Kazakhstan native looked even more comfortable in the heat of battle as usual as he picked at Lemieux with a varied array of punches from different angles. Lemieux took everything well, but he wasn't landing with anything significant in return, and he would have to make some adjustments to get back in the fight.
Scoring with an overhand right early in the third, Lemieux finally had something to build on, and he started to let his hands go. Golovkin, unmoved by the aggressive attacks, remained stone cold in his forward march, his left hand drawing nods of acknowledgment from the Montrealer.
Having taken Golovkin’s heat, Lemieux got more reckless in his rushes in round four, which only prompted “GGG” to step up the pace with a series of barrages that widened his lead but were unable to put the gritty Canadian down.
In the fifth, Lemieux finally hit paydirt with more than a couple power shots, sending sweat flying as he drilled – but didn't move – Golovkin. In the final minute, Golovkin scored a knockdown with a body shot that forced Lemieux to a knee, with an illegal shot to the face while the Canadian was down following immediately. Golovkin apologized and referee Steve Willis didn't penalize him for the infraction. Lemieux rose, seemingly unaffected by the blow, and he made it through the round.
Stalking and looking for the finish as round six began, Golovkin landed with several hard blows, but Lemieux took them all and roared back as the round closed, giving him a needed boost of confidence.
Lemieux, apparently down big on the scorecards, looked to just where he wanted to be in round seven – a fight. Golovkin wasn't giving him too much to work with though, as he kept punishing the Canadian in spurts, bloodying his nose and prompting a visit from the ringside physician, who allowed the bout to continue.
It wouldn't last much longer though, as Golovkin turned up the heat and began landing almost at will in round eight. With Willis watching closely, a final series of shots staggered the gutsy Lemieux. Golovkin hesitated, but when the bout wasn'’t halted, he moved in and landed one more shot that brought Willis in to wave things off at the 1:32 mark.
With the win, Golovkin improves to 34-0 with 31 KOs; Lemieux falls to 34-3 with 31 KOs.
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