To watch Gennady Golovkin vs. David Lemieux full fight video highlights from last night RIGHT NOW click here.
When Gennady Golovkin and David Lemieux stepped into the ring last night (Sat., Oct. 17, 2015) inside Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y., many expected an all-out slugfest between arguably the two most dangerous men in the Middleweight division.
Instead, we got a clinical dissection. For eight rounds, Golovkin systematically beat down Lemieux, working behind a crushing jab to ultimately outland his foe three-to-one.
Lemieux (34-3, 31 KO) was never in the fight, completely unable to get past his foe's jab. More than 50 landed in the first two rounds alone. Then came the power punches.
Golovkin sent Lemieux to a knee in the fifth round with a nasty hook to the body. Lemieux, seemingly galvanized by the adversity, came after him with absolute fireballs and even landed a few, but the Kazakh bruiser was completely unfazed. His nose busted, Lemieux finally succumbed to the onslaught in the eighth round, when another left hook to the liver badly hurt him and the referee mercifully stepped in.
Golovkin was absolutely terrific last night, landing nearly 60 percent of his power shots and showcasing the terrific defense he'd been somewhat neglecting in the past. He expressed a desire afterward to take on the winner of the upcoming "Cotto vs. Canelo" and I, for one, am salivating over the prospect.
In the HBO Boxing pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event, Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez -- regarded by many as the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet -- showed his mettle against an extremely game Brian Viloria, stopping the iron-jawed "Hawaiian Punch" in the ninth round.
Viloria (36-5, 22 KO) had a strong start, coming out with a solid body attack on a surprisingly patient Gonzalez. He actually outlanded his foe through the first two rounds, only for things to take an abrupt turn in the fourth frame.
As Viloria leaned forward for a body shot, Gonzalez (44-0, 38 KO) caught him with a point-blank right hand that forced Viloria's glove to touch the canvas, the first knockdown of his career. From there, it was increasingly clinical as Gonzalez ripped off beautiful combinations to the head and body. Viloria stayed busy and landed some powerful body shots, but he was clearly outgunned by the Nicaraguan champion.
In the ninth, however, Viloria had a hope spot when a left hook seemed to stun Gonzalez. The champ didn't go down, however, and after a brief pause to get his wind back, fired off a vicious sequence of punches that forced the referee to step in.
Gonzalez is a true generational talent, one who thoroughly battered one of the lower weight classes' toughest customers. A rematch with Juan Francisco Estrada or a fight with Japanese wunderkind Naoya Inoue could be one for the ages.
The second PPV bout pit Cuban Heavyweight standout Luis Ortiz against unheralded Argentinian Matias Ariel Vidondo. Things went, in a word, predictably. The heavy-handed Ortiz (23-0, 20 KO) was the slicker boxer and went to work with combinations, including a powerful straight left to the body he landed with regularity. Late in the second, Ortiz landed a three-punch combination that sent Vidondo (20-2-1, 18 KO) stumbling back to the ropes, then caught him with a right hook on the rebound that sent him down.
Vidondo survived the round, but went down for good in the opening seconds of the third from a straight left to the face (watch the knockout highlights right here).
Ortiz has now won two straight since he tested positive for nandrolone following his win over Lateef Kayode. If he can actually find fights, he could be a dark horse in the division.
In the opening bout, which decided Golovkin's mandatory IBF challenger, Tureano Johnson beat the living snot out of Eamonn O'Kane for 12 rounds, setting a Compubox record for landed punches in the process. Johnson (19-1, 13 KO), who landed 396 total power punches at a connection rate of 58 percent, dropped O'Kane twice in the first round with sharp right hooks and controlled the fight from then on.
While O'Kane (14-2-1, 5 KO) continued coming forward and banging to the body for all 12 rounds, Johnson's power, accuracy and defense were all several levels above the Irishman's. Johnson wound up taking the unanimous decision on scores of 118-108, 117-109, and 119-107. He has now won five straight since a controversial loss to Curtis Stevens.
For quick results and round-by-round coverage of "Golovkin vs. Lemieux" click here.