By Dan Ambrose: Marco Antonio Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KOs) may have failed every time he stepped it up against high quality opposition during his boxing career, but WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) still expects him to make it a difficult fight for him next week in their clash on October 18th on HBO at the StubHub Center, in Carson, California, USA.
Golovkin sees Rubio as a tough Mexican fighter with excellent power and a dangerous left hand that he’s going to need to be watchful for in this fight.
With a win over Rubio, Golovkin sees himself potentially getting in the position to fight the winner of the Miguel Cotto vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight in 2015. The reason for that is Rubio’s WBC interim middleweight title will be on the line for the Golovkin-Rubio fight, which means that Golovkin could become the mandatory challenger for the WBC middleweight title holder Cotto.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Cotto or Canelo will choose to fight Golovkin, because neither of them have shown the slightest bit of interest in fighting him thus far, and it’s quite likely that the winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight will vacate the WBC title rather than fight Golovkin and get knocked out. But in theory Golovkin will be putting himself in position to fight the winner of the Cotto vs. Canelo fight. It’s up to them to decide whether they want to be seen by the boxing world vacating the WBC 160 pound title rather than facing Golovkin and getting it over with.
“He’s rough. He’s strong. He’s tough. He’s a good fighter,” Golovkin said via cbssports.com. “He’s a Mexican fighter, so you know he’s going to be there and that it’s going to be a fight. He’s got power. He’s got a very good left hand,” he said. “He does a great job in his fights and he’s got a good record.”
Rubio has a good record, but he doesn’t have a good record when facing high caliber opposition. Rubio is 0-3 against the only good fighters he’s faced during his 14-year pro career in losses to Kelly Pavlik, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Kassim Ouma. He’s also lost to Zaurbek Baysangurov and Kofi Jantuah. Rubio’s best wins have come against Domenico Spada, Matt Vanda, David Lemieux, Enrique Ornelas, Grady Brewer, Frankie Randall, Saul Roman and Fitz Vanderpool. Rubio has beaten the B, C and D level fighters, but he’s gone down to defeat when he’s stepped it up a level.
“I know it’s not an easy fight for him or for me. It’s not an easy fight for either of us. But the fans will really enjoy it,” Golovkin said. “We’ll be putting on a good show for the fans. He’s the best opponent right now for me. He’s the best boxer from Mexico in the middleweight division.”
The fight will be an interesting one for as long as it lasts, because Rubio will be bringing the action to Golovkin, so this fight should have a lot of two-way action for a while before Rubio gets battered and beaten.
Rubio has a good chin, but he’s going to have to take many hard shots in this fight, and there’s no way that a referee will let Rubio soak up punishment for 12 rounds without halting the fight if it’s not competitive.
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