This Saturday night in the “big room” of the mecca of boxing, the Madison Square Garden in New York, undefeated middleweight WBA and IBO champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (30-0, 27KO) made his return to the ring with a splash as he stopped Australia’s Daniel Geale in three brutal in the main event broadcast by HBO. Geale, a veteran of thirty-two fights prior to his face off with the man from Kazakhstan, had never been stopped and his only two losses were split decision nods against Anthony Mundine and Darren Barker. Geale was never in the brutal fight even after landing a couple of hard right hands flush to the face of Golovkin.
Golovkin was able to cut off the ring after the mobile Geale and land hard punches not only to the body but also to the head. The ones up top did the most damage and an uppercut followed by an off-balanced right hand brought the end of Geale near the end of the third round.
After the fireworks in the ring, the charismatic Golovkin created another stir in the post-fight interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman. In broken English but much better than in the past, Golovkin respectfully stated that he wanted Miguel Cotto next.
That was an obvious choice for Golovkin.
Despite appearing numerous times in the last couple of years on the most important network in boxing with each performance much better and exciting than the last, Golovkin is nowhere near as popular as the Puerto Rican Cotto who in his last fight captured the WBC middleweight title against Sergio Martinez just last month. Unfortunately for Golovkin, Cotto might be unavailable for a winter face-off since it is rumored that the WBC 160lbs. champ might defend his title against former champ Julio Cesar Chavez jr. in a mega-fight in a classic Mexico vs. Puerto Rico fight.
One that is ready to fight Golovkin, at least next February or March is Australian Sam Soliman who said that despite being impressed with Golovkin’s performance, he is beatable and he is the man to do it. The forty-year old Soliman is on a career resurgence after losing to Anthony Mundine in 2008. Since then Soliman has fought ten times capturing the IBF middleweight title in his last fight this past May with an upset of Felix Sturm in Germany.
Is he the man to beat Golovkin?
Many experts would say no.
Many believe that the current WBO middleweight champion Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin has the goods to do the job. Tall and mobile, with good hand speed and respectable power, Quillin is scheduled to face Andy Lee on the undercard of Mayweather Jr-Maidana II in September. Quillin has never faced anybody near the talent of Golovkin but does own wins over Fernando Guerrero, Gabriel Rosado and Lukas Konecny.
The experts also doubt that the Cuban-American has what it takes.
One that does disagree is Quillin’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya who stated on twitter that, “Kid Chocolate who packs his own punch will give GGG serious problems.”
