The Forum in California plays host to Golovkin’s next battle as he tries to make it 20 KO’s in a row.
The name ‘Gennady Golovkin’ resounds as one of the most feared in boxing. In many ways the sports’ avoided man; ‘Triple G’, as he’s known, currently enjoys a reputation as one of boxing’s fiercest competitors.
BoxRec’s pound-for-pound Number Four in the world and ranked as the Number One middleweight in boxing, Golovkin is certainly regarded as one of the sports’ elite. The Kazakh-born fighter laced up his gloves for his first professional fight in 2006, and it’s been a story of sheer brutality and success since then.
The 33-year-old became WBA Middleweight Champion in 2010, destroying Nilson Tapia in just three rounds. He has now successfully defended his belt 12 times, incredibly KO’ing every single one of his challengers.
Golovkin’s most notable victims came in the form of ex-world champions Daniel Geale and Matthew Macklin, who were both unable to last three rounds against Triple G’s devastating power. The Kazakh heads into Saturday night’s showdown with Monroe Jnr. looking to extend his run of 19 consecutive KO wins, an extremely daunting task therefore for his relatively inexperienced opponent. Willie Monroe Jnr. without doubt faces his toughest task against Golovkin. Only 19 fights into his professional career, having never fought in a 12 round fight, the American seems somewhat in at the deep end.
Born and raised in New York, ‘The Mongoose’ there learnt his trade and developed his tricky and awkward southpaw style. The 28-year-old’s first test came in his 11th fight against the now light-heavyweight Darnell Boone. It proved to be a step too soon for Monroe, who lost a split decision in a very tough fight. However, nine fights on – with a unanimous decision win over unbeaten Ukrainian prospect Vitaliy Kopylenko in 2014 – Monroe comes into this weekend’s fight full of confidence and belief that he can be the first man to overcome the might of Golovkin.
Unsurprisingly however, the middleweight Champion is a 1/100 favourite to retain his titles and 1/20 to continue his run of consecutive KO’s.
Golovkin’s game plan as always will be to run Monroe down and cut off the ring in order to land his swift and powerful combinations. We’ve seen Triple G in previous fights experiment with big chopping right hands that his opponents simply don’t see coming, which might be a ploy of ‘The Golden Boy’ this time around against an awkward Southpaw.
Monroe Jnr’s only real advantage is his reach which extends 4 inches further than Golovkin’s. The American is going to have to extremely fast on his feet and try to fend of the World Champion with his movement and quick jab to attempt to disrupt Triple G’s rhythm, which Martin Murray had moments of success with in Golovkin’s last fight.
A particularly worrying factor for Monroe however is that he isn’t a very big puncher only KO’ing 30% of his previous opponents, which suggests he won’t be able to hurt a very resilient champion. Trying to take the fight into the late rounds is usually the plan for every one of Golovkin’s opponents, however Monroe has never been in a 12 round fight before and the pace could take more out of him than Triple G. It really is difficult to make a case for Monroe winning this one.
Golovkin is at the peak of his powers and I fully expect the Kazakh to continue his run of KO’s. The 3rd round has been a successful KO round for ‘The Golden Boy’ in the past and he’s 7/1 to do the same on Saturday night.
