Golovkin Destroys Mamani

By Boxing News - 01/18/2009 - Comments

gennedy3432335By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated middleweight contender Gennady Golovkin (15-0, 12 KOs) exploded on Argentinian Javier Alberto Mamani (35-8-1, 19 KOs), stopping him in the 1st round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Saturday night at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Golovkin, 26, a former 2004 Middleweight Olympic Silver Medalist for the Kazakhstani Olympic Team, hurt Mamani with a hard right hand late in the 1st round.

Golovkin then followed up with a double left hook to the head, a left to the body and a right uppercut to the head. With Mamani in bad trouble, Golovkin then hit him with a 1-2 combination followed by a left to the head, sending Mamani down to the canvas. Referee Juergen Lango then stepped in and halted the fight at 2:52 of the 1st round.

Golovkin, originally from Kazakhstan and now living in Hamburg, Germany, fought most of the 1st round at a casual pace, fighting slowly and throwing weak jabs and body shots. For most of the round, he looked like nothing special as he traded shots with the Argentinian.

However, suddenly with little time remaining in the round, Golovkin seemed to explode on Mamani, hitting him with a monstrous right hand that seemed to come from nowhere. Mamani was badly hurt from the punch, which had to have surprised him because it was thrown with so much more power than anything that Golovkin had thrown up to that point in the fight.

Mamani then backed away, retreating to the ropes for safety. Golovkin was having none of it and fired off a double left hook to the head, then a big right hand to the body. Mamani feebly tried to throw a right hand but it had no effect in slowing down Golovkin’s attack, as he immediately responded with two right hands to the head and then a left to the body of Mamani.

Golovkin then grabbed Mamani around the neck with his left hand, forcing his head forward and down and then hit him with a hard right uppercut to his head. It happened so quickly that the referee didn’t have time to give Golovkin a warning, but either way, it wouldn’t have mattered much, because Golovkin was going to take Mamani out no matter what he hit him with. Golovkin then fired off a hard left-right combination and then a left hand to put Mamani down for the count. The referee then moved in and officially put a stop to the bout at 2:52 of the 1st round.

Golovkin, ranked #7 in the WBA and #9 in the WBC, looks to be one of the most dangerous middleweights in the division. I already consider him to be better than any of the top contenders in the division, including Sebastian Zbik, Marco Antonio Rubio, and Khoren Gevor. This is someone to keep an eye on in the future. With his power and explosiveness, I can see him giving the middleweight champions Kelly Pavlik, Arthur Abraham and Felix Sturm a lot of problems in the future.