By Keith Idec
NEW YORK — Curtis Stevens considers Gennady Golovkin nothing more than a “hype job.”
Golovkin is an 11-1 favorite to beat Stevens in their middleweight title fight Saturday night in The Theater at Madison Square Garden (HBO; 10 p.m. ET/PT). The hard-hitting Stevens still can’t figure out why oddmakers or anyone else believes Golovkin (27-0, 24 KOs) will tear through him the way the knockout artist from Kazakhstan has annihilated almost every opponent in his seven-year pro career.
“He’s [been] fighting junior middleweights,” Stevens said. “[Nobuhiro] Ishida was 154. He fought Gabriel Rosado — 154. Kassim Ouma — 154. [Matthew] Macklin, he was scared sh-tless and just came from getting knocked out by Sergio Martinez.
“So look at the guys they put in front of him, for him to demolish and look spectacular. Taking nothing away from his knockouts and what he’s doing, yes, he’s supposed to do that. [I can’t see] why they have him on this pedestal, with the guys he has fought. They’re junior middleweights.”
Unwillingly playing the role of overmatched underdog has motivated Stevens (25-3, 18 KOs), especially since the 12-round fight for Golovkin’s IBO/WBA 160-pound championships will take place in the Brooklyn-born Stevens’ hometown.
“I lost the fight already,” Stevens said. “In the interviews, it’s, ‘After Curtis Stevens, Andre Ward and …’ Give me my paycheck now and we won’t even have to get in the ring. You know what I’m saying? The way everyone’s making it out to be, I don’t know if they think I’m the [Curtis Stevens] from two years ago, when I was fighting.
“I don’t know what the hell these people are thinking in they rabid-ass minds. But come Nov. 2, I can for sure guarantee you after that last bell rings, they’re going to be like, ‘Oh sh-t!’ I lost a lot of money.’ And I’m going to say, ‘I told you so.’ ”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.