Chalk up another knockout victory for Gennady Golovkin.
Destructive Tale Continues
WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin stopped Marco Antonio Rubio in the second round of the main event of “Mexican Style” at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Fighting in California for the first time ever, the Kazakh Knockout Artist showed the 9.323 people in attendance why he is the most feared boxer today.
Golovkin continued his destructive tales by scoring his 18th consecutive knockout against the man who lost his interim title in the weighing scales the previous day. But despite that, Rubio was a Mexican warrior and was supposed to show Golovkin how it is to fight the “Mexican Style”. Instead, that didn’t happen.
What Mexican Style?
Golovkin needed less that two rounds to dispose of the tough Marco Antonio Rubio and add the WBC interim middleweight title to his waist. Rubio stayed true to his word of showing Golovkin the true “Mexican style” of boxing by going toe to toe with GGG in the first round. And while he took well most of Golovkin’s punches in round one, his head was snapped by one of Golovkin’s bombs late in the round.
In the second Round, Golovkin started to heat up and transformed Rubio into a punching bag. Landing hard shots in combinations at will, Golovkin slowly smothered Rubio. Rubio tried to avoid Golovkin’s punches by staying close but Golovkin effectively created the opening by pushing Rubio off and landing a right hand and left uppercut that started the end for Rubio.
A staggered Rubio moved towards the ropes where Golovkin caught him with a clean left to the temple that shut down Rubio’s legs. While it didn’t look like a fight ending-knockdown, Rubio failed to get up after taking time on the canvass to recover. Referee Jack Reiss counted out Rubio at the 1:19 mark of round two.
Marketing Golovkin
After the fight, Golovkin talked to the crowd with a couple of Mexican phrases that was cheered by the crowd who came to watch boxing’s fastest rising star. K-2 Promotions, who handles Golovkin, has been trying to endear its most prized fighter to the US market in an attempt not just to get bigger purses but to pressure the bigger named fighters like Cotto, Ward, Chavez Jr and Canelo Alvarez to fight him. Golovkin has earned a reputation as a high risk and low reward opponent who has left a trail of destruction behind him. K-2 hopes that with the win, the boxing public can help him get the big fights.
Golovkin is certainly ready for the big boys, and after the bout he mentioned Miguel Cotto as his preferred foe. And while Miguel Cotto and Saul Canelo Alvarez may be headed for a Cinco de Mayo weekend showdown, Gennady Golovkin hopes that his win over Rubio can put him in between the equation. However, with the way that he’s been knocking out his opponents, it’s understandable why Miguel Cotto is likely to choose Canelo Alvarez over Gennady Golovkin.