Bill Emes catches up with the CEO of Main Events, Kathy Duva, to discuss the fufture of middleweight contender Curtis Stevens after suffering an eight round technical knockout defeat to WBA/IBO champion Gennady Golovkin at the Theater in New York's Madison Square Garden.
By Thomas Gerbasi - NEW YORK - – After scoring another knockout win Saturday night, this one over Curtis Stevens before 4,618 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, WBA / IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s legend continues to grow, and at 28-0 with 25 knockouts, it’s clear that the next fight for Kazakhstan’s “GGG” needs to be a major one, and he had only one name on his mind after the bout was done: “Sergio Martinez,” said Golovkin of the WBC middleweight boss when pressed on who he would like to face next. As for tonight’s fight, the potential for danger was there, but after eight fairly one-sided rounds, it’s clear that Golovkin is on a different level than most of his 160-pound peers. From the opening bell, Golovkin was raring to go, meeting Stevens (25-4, 18 KOs) in the middle of the ring and remaining in front of the power-punching Brooklynite, eagerly trading blows at a fast clip and emerging with redness under both eyes early on. That’s not to say Golovkin was playing second fiddle to the challenger though, as he got in more than his share of shots throughout the opening three minutes. The pace was more measured in the second, with Golovkin spearing Stevens with his jab throughout the frame until he unleashed a vicious left hook that dropped the challenger with a thud. Stevens rose to his feet, and though clearly in trouble, he was able to survive, even getting in a left hook before the bell.
Gennady Golovkin has impressive stats in all categories: 42% of total punches landed - 10% higher than middleweight average.; 11 jabs landed per round - double the middleweight avergae.; 46% of power punches landed - 8% higher than middleweight average. Opponents Macklin, Rosado, Ishida, Proksa landed just 21% of their total punches. Curtis Stevens has landed nearly half of his power shots in comeback fights against Roman, Findley, Ayala.
Almaty, Kazakhstan’s Isa Akbarbayev got the crowd into the action immediately, keeping his undefeated record intact with a shutout four round unanimous decision win over Brian Clookey in the cruiserweight opener. Scores were 40-36 across the board Clookey showed up to fight, but without the firepower to hurt his opponent, the better schooled Akbarbayev steadily broke the New Yorker down, with body shots being his most effective weapon. By the fourth round, the “Bumble Bee” had Clookey bleeding from a cut over his eye, and the outcome was no longer in the doubt, but the previously unbeaten Chase Mills product did manage to make it to the final bell With the win, Akbarbayev improves to 11-0 with 7 KOs and 1 NC; Clookey falls to 4-1-2 with 2 KOs.
Gennady Golovkin sure knows how to get fight fans’ attention, doesn’t he? Train like a beast, Knock out a fighter, and flash a million-dollar smile. Golovkin has repeated that cycle over and over, especially in the last year where American fight fans are now exposed to what he has done. Truth be told, he has done this 27 times as a professional and may or may not be peaking at the age of 31. Whatever the case may be, Golovkin is slowly making believers out of doubters in the past year, whatever the competition may be. So far, he has fought modest competition and Curtis Stevens will be the next fighter who will attempt to beat that mystique of Golovkin on Saturday night.
Gennady Golovkin is confident he will do a job on Curtis Stevens when he defends his WBA middleweight title on Saturday night. The Kazakh is unbeaten in 27 fights and his fearsome power means he enters the contest against Stevens (25-3) in New York as a hot favourite. And with Stevens also boasting a good knockout ratio fans are expecting fireworks - while it lasts. "He's a strong guy and a good puncher, but I think it's a good fight for us," he said. "I'm the champion.
by Cliff Rold - The building of a potential international star versus the explosion of a well-matched international fight…what does one watch this Saturday night? The answer, of course, is both. Gennady Golovkin-Curtis Stevens, with undercard support, will be the HBO (10 PM EST/PST) presentation for the evening. Tyson Marquez-Giovani Segura will go live on UniMas (11 PM EST/PST). Whether it airs first or after a support bout remains to be determined. These fights may or may not air at roughly the same time. Let’s hope they don’t. If they do, regardless of which fight gets the live treatment, and which goes to DVR for later viewing, fights fans know this: in two marquee matches, four serious punchers will collide at ring center. If there isn’t at least one devastating knockout on Saturday night, it might just be a Douglas-Tyson level upset.
NEW YORK CITY - All fighters for this Saturday’s night’s “MONSTERS COLLIDE” professional boxing event at Madison Square Garden, “The Mecca of Boxing”, weighed-in today. “MONSTERS COLLIDE” is headlined by the World Middleweight Championship between WBA/IBO Champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and top rated challenger Curtis Stevens of Brooklyn, New York.
The weights are in for the HBO televised doubleheader from the Theater in New York's Madison Square Garden. The main event is a middleweight battle between WBA/IBO champion Gennady Golovkin and Curtis Stevens. The challenger, Stevens (25-3, 18KOs) was 159.2-pounds Golovkin (27-0, 24KOs) was 159.6-pounds In the co-featured attraction, a battle of undefeated heavyweights, Mike Perez (19-0, 12KOs) came in at 235.8-pounds, while Magomed Abdusalamov (18-0, 18KOs) came in at 231.6-pounds. They battle for the WBC United States (USNBC) heavyweight title. For the IBO cruiserweight championship, Ola Afolabi (19-3, 9KOs) came in at 194-pounds, while Lukasz Janik (26-1, 14KOs) was 198.6-pounds.
Golovkin vs. Stevens is a 12-round bout for Golovkin’s WBA and IBO Middleweight World Championship, presented by K2 Promotions in association with Main Events, GGG Promotions and Madison Square Garden. In the televised co-feature, undefeated heavyweights Mike Perez and Magomed Abdusalamov will clash in a 10-round bout presented in association with Sampson Boxing LLC.