{"id":29200,"date":"2014-10-18T11:28:52","date_gmt":"2014-10-18T03:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=29200"},"modified":"2014-10-18T09:39:42","modified_gmt":"2014-10-18T01:39:42","slug":"knockout-power-middleweight-champ-gennady-golovkin-eager-to-extend-stoppage-streak-vs-rubio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/18\/knockout-power-middleweight-champ-gennady-golovkin-eager-to-extend-stoppage-streak-vs-rubio\/","title":{"rendered":"Knockout power: Middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin eager to extend stoppage streak vs Rubio"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gennady<\/a>
Gennady “GGG” Golovkin fighting for his WBA and IBO middleweight titles against Gabriel Rosado at Madison Square Garden in New York. eric molina<\/a> \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CARSON, Calif.\u2014Gennady Golovkin has stopped his last 17 opponents while rising to the top of the middleweight division. When he takes the outdoor ring Saturday night, the sellout crowd fully expects Golovkin\u2019s West Coast debut to end with his 18th straight knockout.<\/p>\n

Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) hasn\u2019t disappointed anybody during his climb to stardom, but he knows Marco Antonio Rubio is tough enough to force Golovkin to work harder than ever before to get his next stoppage.<\/p>\n

With his ever-present smile, Golovkin welcomes the challenge presented to him under the stars at the StubHub Center on HBO.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s going to be a big drama show,\u201d Golovkin said. \u201cFor who, I don\u2019t know. Everybody agrees it\u2019s a big fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kazakh-born, California-trained WBA middleweight champion\u2019s 12th title defence has been advertised with the title \u201cMexican Style\u201d\u2014the phrase Golovkin created to describe his favourite way to fight. Golovkin\u2019s aggression and skill have made him into a star, and he intends to keep his career momentum going against Mexico\u2019s Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KOs), the longtime title contender who has won six straight fights.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy style is great with his style,\u201d said Golovkin, who has never fought a Mexican boxer. \u201cJust fighting. Not a lot of technical. Not a lot of moving and dancing. Just power and boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s music to Golovkin\u2019s promoters and fans, who have watched his ascent through steadily improving opposition. He has stopped four top-level middleweights in the last 16 months alone, culminating in his third-round victory over former champion Daniel Geale at Madison Square Garden in late July.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t go out there putting pressure on himself to knock out everybody he meets, but that\u2019s what happens,\u201d trainer Abel Sanchez said. \u201cHe\u2019s trained to go 12 rounds if he has to, and he knows it\u2019s a possibility. But he also knows what the fans came to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golovkin is eager to claim Rubio\u2019s interim WBC title to put pressure on regular WBC titleholder Miguel Cotto for a unification bout. Cotto, Sergio Martinez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and most of the world\u2019s elite fighters at 160 and 168 pounds have been uninterested in taking on the intimidating Golovkin, even with HBO\u2019s money behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want unification fights,\u201d Golovkin said. \u201cI want to prove who is the best in the middleweight division.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubio wants to be more than a footnote on Golovkin\u2019s rise to stardom, and he was encouraged by moments of success for Geale and other recent Golovkin opponents. But the Mexican veteran realizes he must figure out a way to negate the aggression that has doomed everybody who stepped in the ring with the Kazakh champion.<\/p>\n

Golovkin and Rubio aren\u2019t the only reasons for the record crowd coming to Carson. In the co-main event, four-division champion Nonito Donaire (33-2, 21 KOs) takes on Jamaica\u2019s Nicholas Walters (24-0, 20 KOs) in a much-anticipated featherweight title fight.<\/p>\n

While Golovkin\u2019s eagerness to fight has been his trademark, Donaire candidly acknowledges his disenchantment with boxing after his lengthy list of accomplishments. The\u00a0Filipino-born, Bay Area-raised champion struggled for motivation before losing his 122-pound titles to Guillermo Rigondeaux in April 2013, ending his 30-fight winning streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe toughest test is motivating myself,\u201d said Donaire, who has won two fights and a featherweight belt since his loss. \u201cI know I have the power and the intelligence to keep fighting, but when a boy accomplishes his dream, he looks for another dream. That\u2019s where I was, and when I lost, I realized I didn\u2019t want to walk away from this dream. I wasn\u2019t finished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walters has talked a brash game before his biggest fight, promising a stoppage. Donaire laughs at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy has never experienced this quality of fight,\u201d Donaire said. \u201cHe\u2019s a hard puncher, but I\u2019m one of those things that just disappears right in front of you. If he can punch that, then we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CARSON, Calif.\u2014Gennady Golovkin has stopped his last 17 opponents while rising to the top of the middleweight division. When he …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-sports","mauthors-greg-beacham","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}