Gennady Golovkin extended his knockout streak to 19 Saturday night in Monte Carlo, Monaco, stopping Martin Murray in Round 11 of their scheduled 12-round middleweight title bout.
In a bout that saw Golovkin (32-0, 29 KOs) control the fight through out, Murray (29-2-1, 12 KOs) deserves credit for making it as far as he did. Although, Murray’s corner would have been wise to stop the fight earlier than when the referee called a halt to action in the 11th, you can’t knock the tremendous heart Murray displayed.
Golovkin landed 292 of 816 (36 percent) punches thrown compared to Murray’s 131 of 469 (28 percent). GGG connected on 220 of his 524 (42 percent) power shots, which showed on Murray’s beaten and bloodied face post-fight. Murray landed his fair share of power shots going 112 of 299 (37 percent), but it was obvious the difference between the two’s punching power was very different.
Murray was knocked down a total of three times in the fight—twice in the fourth and once in the 10th—before the fight was eventually called off by the ref after Golovkin landed a huge shot with Murray on the ropes in Round 11.
With another dominant performance under his belt, Golovkin called out WBC middleweight champ Miguel Cotto in his post-fight interview.
“I hope, I hope Miguel Cotto,” Golovkin said. “My goal is all the belts in the middleweight division. I need unification fight.”
Cotto, turned down a fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in hopes of landing a rematch with Floyd Mayweather. Those hopes ended when Mayweather announced the long-awaited fight between he and fellow pound-for-pound best Manny Pacquiao Friday.
With seemingly no other big name opponent left, Cotto might need to take the fight with Golovkin, if he doesn’t want fans to think he is ducking tough fights.
Another option that presented itself Saturday night would be against former middleweight champ Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. as the Mexican star called GGG out on social media after his win.
Without his power he’s not that good of a boxer, I’ll bet you GGG a million dollar of the purse that I’ll knock you out if we fight ..
— Julio Cesar Chavez (@jcchavezjr1) February 22, 2015
And added:
Come to my weight class @GGGBoxing — Julio Cesar Chavez (@jcchavezjr1) February 22, 2015
Chavez Jr. had a chance to fight Golovkin last summer, but pulled out stating issues with his former promoter, Top Rank, to which he still has lingering issues with today. Most saw that as Chavez Jr. ducking Golovkin, so one would have to wonder how serious Chavez Jr. was in his call out of GGG.
With Golovkin stating he wants to fight four times in 2015 (per USA Today), let’s hope some of the bigger names mentioned step up and try their hand at handing Golovkin his first defeat, something that looks like one of the toughest outs in the sport.
