By Edward Chaykovsky

WBA/IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (27-0, 24KOs) has continued to climb in the television ratings on HBO. When Golovkin made his HBO debut against Grzegorz Proksa last September, he drew a rating of 685,000 viewers. The number climbed to 813,000 when he faced Gabriel Rosado in January, and last Saturday's three round destruction of Matthew Macklin drew a figure of 1.1 million viewers.

Golovkin will return to HBO in November against another highly ranked opponent. He may take another fight, off HBO, in August or September. After he dispatched of Rosado in January, HBO stepped up their marketing efforts for Golovkin's fight with Macklin and the higher ratings figure displays their added effort in gaining more subscribers to watch the Eastern Euro puncher.