The question coming into tonight’s middleweight championship fight between Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin and Matthew Macklin was a simple one: Can Golovkin really be THAT good? Before the first bell, Golovkin could alread lay claim to having the highest KO percentage among active world champions. He also had 7 title defenses, all of them by KO, to lend credibility to his glossy record. But Golovkin has looked so good and been so outstanding in all of his previous fights, that his fight tonight against Macklin took on a different importance. It was not simply about winning, but about winning with such overwhelming dominance that hype could finally be replaced with a true affirmation of talent. And Matthew Macklin provided the perfect measuring stick for just how much of Golovkin’s talent was truly hype, and how much reality. Although not many could be expected to pick Macklin to win, his fights again Felix Sturm and Sergio Martinez were enough to make even the most ardent Golovkin supporter feel that perhaps a bit of the “Triple G” mystique could be lost at the end of the night. Thankfully for those of us who love boxing, Golovkin’s performance against Macklin laid to rest any speculation that he’s merely another good fighter. Golovkin is truly unstoppable. He tore through Matthew Macklin with a serene ferocity that was truly remarkable to watch. Not for a moment did he ever look anything but calm; yet all the while he threw punches that were calculatedly brutal. It’s not often that someone watching a prize fight can visibly see fear in either fighter, but Macklin looked legitimately afraid after the first minute of the fight. Golovkin patiently stalked him and unleashed perfectly placed and perfectly leveraged shots to the body and head whenever he was in range. After less than one round, it was apparent the fight was over. Macklin was never truly in the fight and about a minute into the third, Golovkin put two hard shots upstairs then sunk a pinpoint left hook into Macklin’s liver. The shot doubled Macklin over and it would be a full two minutes before he got up off of the canvas. It was a shockingly definitive knockout of a very good fighter and exactly what Golovkin was looking for. He now stands at 27-0 (24 KOs) and should likely be considered the best middleweight in the world. Only a showdown with Sergio Martinez now stands between Golovkin and boxing stardom. For Macklin (now 29-5 20KOs), his career is still very much alive and well. He can still give any elite fighter (not named Gennady Golovkin) a real test and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him and Felix Sturm in a rematch in the near future. Macklin is truly a good fighter. But after tonight, Golovkin is truly great.
“My perfect position for that body shot,” Golovkin commented. “I want this fight (vs. Sergio Martinez). I felt great in the ring, he never hurt me. It was an easy fight for me. I want to fight against soon. Any top fighter, any champion, any belt holder….anywhere.”
“He’s the best I ever fought,” a game Macklin said. “He never really let me get started. It was a great shot he landed, the left hook to the body is personally one of my favorites. I tip my hat to him; he’s a great champion. He has clubbing, solid power and you can feel the weight of every punch he throws.”
In the HBO co-feature, up and coming super middleweight Thomas Oosthuizen got much more than he expected out of the unbeaten but unheralded Brandon Gonzalez. The fight started with Oosthuizen working his southpaw jab from the outside, but Gonzalez used his quicker feet to slip into position and connect with straight right hands. Gonzalez utilized this strategy to good effect through the first 5 rounds, but Oosthuizen began to find a home for his straight left in round 6. Gonzalez picked back up in round 7, landing some hard shots and gaining back a bit of momentum; but rounds 8-10 were all Oosthuizen. Gonzalez (who was in his first 10 round fight) was visibly tired throughout the last 3 rounds and was no longer able to slip into position to punch. He also had lost enough movement to catch some hard punches from Oosthuizen and had to empty his tank over the last round to stay in the fight. At the end, none of the judges agreed and handed in scores of 98-92 for Gonzalez, 96-94 for Oosthuizen and 95-95 a draw. The resulting split draw allowed both fighters to remain unbeaten: Gonzalez at 17-0-2 10KOs and Oosthuizen at 23-0-2 13KOs.
“I felt sluggish the first two rounds and then I found my rhythm. I thought I won the fight. I’d give him an immediate rematch if he wanted. I want to come back to fight in America soon and I want to fight Mikkel Kessler.”
“I feel good,” Gonzales remarked. “I absolutely won the fight. I landed the harder punches and out-boxed him. I did everything I had to do, unfortunately, the judges didn’t think so. We’ll go back to the drawing board and figure out where to go from there.”
The HBO opener between junior middleweights Willie Nelson and Luciano Cuello was a fight that should probably be shown to anyone new to boxing as an example of how a fight is scored. Nelson was able to win enough rounds to easily take the fight; but was beat up in almost every one of the rounds he lost. Rounds 3, 7 and 10 were rounds in which Cuello landed hard shots that had Nelson staggered on a number of occasions. Nelson won almost all of the others with a higher work rate and put enough rounds in the bank to be assured a victory despite a disastrous 10th round in which he was badly hurt by a Cuello uppercut. Nelson hung on to survive to the bell and took a unanimous decision by scores of 97-93 (twice) and 96-94. He improves to 21-1-1 12KOS while Cuello slips to 32-3 15KOs.
“I feel great,” Nelson said after making his HBO debut. “He’s tougher than I thought but I still think I won convincingly. The cuts (both eyes) bothered me but I fought through it. I want to fight all the top 154-pound fighters and this was another step in that direction.”
