By Eric Thomas: WBA World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (ww-0, 19 KO’s) made short work of #14 ranked World Boxing Association challenger Lajuan Simon (23-4-2, 12 KO’s) on Friday night, stopping him in the 1st round with a tremendous left hook to the head in Ballsaal Interconti-Hotel, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Referee Jose Ignacio Martinez halted the fight at 2:17 of the round.

Early on in the round, Golovkin was landing chopping right hands to the head of Simon all the while trying to line him up for left hooks. Simon seemed to show no clear understanding of Golovkin’s power at that point in the fight because he was coming straight at him. In past fights against big punchers Arthur Abraham and Dionisio Miranda, Simon was a lot more careful. However, he may have been lulled to sleep because Golovkin wasn’t putting everything he had on each shot. However, when Golovkin did load up on one of his shots, his left hook, Simon never knew what hit him. It was a brutal knockout that sent Simon down backwards like a falling tree.

Golovkin, a big puncher and former Olympian from Kazakhstan, left no doubt about the outcome after connecting with a beautiful left to the head that put Simon down flat on his back. This was Golovkin’s first title defense of his WBA belt. He’s been wanting to take on Felix Sturm, the WBA Super World middleweight champion, but thus far Golovkin has been unable to get a fight against Sturm. That’s obviously something that can happen in the future if Sturm is able to hold onto his belt much longer. Sturm would have problems taking the kinds of mammoth shots that Golovkin typically throws. While fighting as an amateur, Golovkin stopped Lucian Bute in four rounds and also defeated Andy Lee and Andre Dirrell.