ON TO THE NEXT ONE
The fans are thrilled to see ‘GGG’, whoever he is up against
Gennady Golovkin keeps busy with a brutal victory over Vanes Martirosyan
‘VANES IS A GOOD FIGHTER, HE BUZZED ME A COUPLE OF TIMES’
TWO months ago, Gennady Golovkin was preparing for a different opponent (Canelo Alvarez) at a different venue (T-mobile Arena) in a different city (Las Vegas). But even as they all fell through for reasons that need no further explanation here, he remained fixated on keeping the date. One of the most improbable aspects of the rise of this Kazakh middleweight with broken English and thunderous punches is the bond he has forged with his Mexican fan base, and it was for them – as well as to avoid wasting a training camp – that he ploughed ahead with fighting on Cinco de Mayo, even as the options for opponents dwindled and the original arena withdrew.
In the end, when he emerged from his dressing room on May 5, the man waiting for him in the ring at the Stubhub Center on a cool California evening was Vanes Martirosyan. But if there was any doubt that this night was all about “GGG”, that his opponent’s identity was almost an irrelevance, that was dispelled as Golovkin appeared to the trademark beats of a Seven Nation Army opening riff and, instead of walking straight to the ring, he slowly circled the arena, waving to the crowd and basking in their adulation.
Golovkin, originally from Karaganda and now living in Santa Monica, had fought at this venue once before, in October 2014, when he swatted aside Marco Antonio Rubio inside two rounds. The crowd on that night didn’t care that the bout wasn’t competitive; they just wanted to see Golovkin demolish another pretender, and the same vibe permeated the Stubhub as the bell rang to open this contest.
Martirosyan, a resident of Glendale, California, is a perfectly fine prizefighter. But he is a career super-welterweight who has always fallen just short at the highest level and who hadn’t fought for two years. His role here wasn’t to offer competition, but to be the sacrificial lamb who would allow Golovkin to display the kind of explosive swagger that has been missing since he broke Kell Brook’s orbital bone in September 2016.
The Armenian’s face betrayed that awareness early on, too, the tension evident as Golovkin stalked and probed patiently in the opener. But then Martirosyan decided that if he was going to go down, he was going down fighting, and just before the bell rang to end the first frame, he uncorked a right and a left that caught Golovkin flush and caused his feet to do a little stutter step. Golovkin smiled and nodded in acknowledgment of Martirosyan’s impudence, and came out in the second round apparently resolved to punish him for it.
“Vanes is a very good fighter,” said Golovkin. “He buzzed me a couple of times. After the first round, I thought, ‘This is serious. This is serious business now.’”
Golovkin tore into his opponent from the start of the second, crashing an uppercut into his jaw that buckled him but somehow didn’t put him down. A right hand sent Martirosyan backwards, another right sent him closer to the ropes, and then a right and a left had him sagging. A further right sent him towards the canvas and a final hook, perilously close to being landed too late, finished the job. Martirosyan sank to his knees, then fell flat, face-first, on the canvas. He hauled himself up, dropped back to his knees and lay flat again as referee Jack Reiss completed the count at 1-53.
“That was the hardest puncher I have ever faced,” said Martirosyan post-fight. “It was like being hit by a train. It wasn’t just one punch. It was all of his punches.”
With Martirosyan duly dealt with, Golovkin turned his thoughts to the future, to a possible rematch with Canelo and world title defences against any number of the burgeoning crop of middleweight contenders.
“Hopefully soon I can have fights with all these guys,” he said, before looking at the WBC, WBA and IBF title belts around his waist and over his shoulder. “Come and take the belts from me,” he dared. “I want everybody.”
The co-main event, the first female boxing bout ever broadcast live on HBO, was billed as something of a showcase for
Cecilia Braekhus, but the undisputed world welterweight champion from Bergen, Norway was made to work for victory by Providence, Rhode Island’s Kali Reis.
Braekhus appeared to struggle to find a way through Reis’ defence early on, but after three tight opening rounds she settled into a comfortable groove, in which she beat her opponent to the punch with her faster hands and superior movement and technique. Reis, however, kept coming forward and a booming right hand in the seventh dropped Braekhus briefly to one knee, and another in the eighth buckled her and knocked her backwards into the ropes at the bell. Braekhus recovered to win the final two rounds, however, and deserved her unanimous victory by scores of 97-92 (Tim Cheatham) and 96-93 (Edward Hernandez Snr and Zac Young). Referee was Gerard White. Cleveland super-lightweight Ryan Martin dropped Miami-based Colombian
Breidis Prescott once officially (and twice more from blows that Prescott, in full Luis Santana mode, insisted were low) en route to a wide unanimous decision by scores of 79-71 (Max Deluca and John Mccarthy) and 77-73 (Fernando Villarreal). Jerry Cantu officiated.
THE VERDICT Golovkin takes his frustrations out on Martirosyan with a performance typical of his explosive best. Tougher challenges, including Canelo again, await.