(Photo credit: HBO) By Allan Fox: The hardest part for WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (27-0, 24 KO’s) is already over with him no longer having to endure listening to and reading the trash talking of his opponent Curtis Stevens (25-3, 18 KO’s) in getting ready for his fight tonight on HBO at the Madison Square Garden Theater, in New York, New York, USA. Golovkin is done having to listen to Stevens and he can now go out and get rid of him once and for all in what should be a very easy fight for him.
That’s not to say that the 28-year-old Stevens isn’t a dangerous foe, because he does have excellent power. But Stevens is very small at 5’7″, and he’s more of a fringe contender in the middleweight division than a true top contender. This isn’t going to be a difficult fight for Golovkin, as Stevens has lost each time he’s stepped in up in his career against good opposition. Stevens is more at home beating up 2nd and 3rd tier opposition than in facing the cream of the division in Golovkin.
Stevens seems to have a pretty decent chin, but then again it’s still hard to tell because he’s only faced a couple of decent level fighters during his career in Andre Dirrell and Jesse Brinkley. Stevens did handle the power of the hard hitting Saul Roman recently in stopping him in the 1st round last August, but we don’t know how Stevens would have held up if Roman was able to bounce his big power shots off his chin for 5 or 6 rounds. Stevens didn’t look like he wanted to find out because he came out quickly to make sure that he wasn’t going to have to eat Roman’s hard shots for too long.
It worked well for Stevens because he was able to get Roman out of there before he got to him. You can expect Stevens to do the same thing tonight in hopes of getting Golovkin out before he starts testing Stevens’ chin and body. What’s going to be interesting to see with this fight is how well Stevens can handle getting hit hard to the body. He seems to take a head shot pretty well against the largely weak opposition he’s faced, but we don’t know if he can handle getting hit hard in the body. Don’t be surprised if Stevens is stopped with a body shot in one or two rounds by Golovkin because he’s really stepping into the unknown tonight with this fight.
Stevens comes into this fight with three 1st round knockouts in his last four fights. He hasn’t beaten anyone that you can make a big deal out of, but the fact that he’s knocking guys out in the 1st round tells you that he brings it early looking to get his opponents out as quick as possible. However, Stevens gives up so much in the height and reach department that he could find himself unable to lay a glove on Golovkin unless he makes it easy for him by standing close enough for him to land his shots.
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