golovkin By Bob Smith: In honor of the occasion of writing this article, and also to refresh my memory, I re-watched the fight between Marco Antonio Rubio and then undefeated middleweight David Lemieux.

Though Lemieux was the favorite and the harder puncher, and is still a top 10 or top 20 middleweight even now, four or five years later, the cunning, technique, defense, boxing skill, endurance, and confidence of Rubio were enough to allow him to weather the early onslaught from an overconfident Lemieux and come back with the beautiful win. Can Rubio repeat this feat in his fight with Golovkin?

First, before anything else, I want to say on a personal level that Marco Antonio Rubio is one of my favorite middle weights of this era. Sure, I like Golovkin best, and a few years ago, it was Martinez who was perhaps my favorite overall fighter, but Rubio was always in the top 6 or so. And the reason is that if I ever were a boxer, I would fight like him – he has a swimmers body, even more so than does Golovkin – broad shoulders, thin, long arms, respectable punching power for weight but nothing incredible, but more than anything else, he is a very well conditioned athlete, skilled defender, and a very intelligent fighter who sizes up his opponents well and has excellent game plans. (Yes, you guessed it, legendary writer Bob Smith is a former skilled swimmer who holds records from childhood that have lasted 20+ years.)

Rubio has frequently fallen short in big fights – against Pavlik, Julio Ceaser Chavez Jr., but has lost only those two times against stronger, bigger fighters, in world title fights, and two losses in 8 or 9 years against tough competition is quite respectable.

But even more than all of this, in my opinion he has maximized his physical potential on the level of a Floyd Mayweather – for Mayweather, who has natural speed, good power, and lightening quick reflexes the outcome is to be a p4p star and the highest paid athlete in sports; for Marco Antonio Rubio, it is to be a top middleweight contender and occasional titleist, but they both have made the most of what they started with, which is all any of us can do.

Having said all of this, he faces an impossible task in taking on Golovkin, and he will lose. But it is how he loses that will be the measure not only of Golovkin’s prowess as compared to top middleweights like Pavlik and Juilo Ceasar Chavez Jr., but also of the skill and cunning of Rubio. If he is knocked out in the first four rounds, the logical conclusion is that Golovkin is a step or several steps above Pavlik and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., as Marco Antonio Rubio is roughly the same fighter as he was when he fought them, and he has aged well despite his tremendous number of fights. In fact, he is a relatively “young” 34 as compared to Miguel Cotto, who is a few fights away from retiring and who has been in far worse wars.

But I highly doubt Marco Antonio Rubio will go out so quickly – he has too much experience and technique and talent and cunning for this. While he might well be defeated by Curtis Stevens or Daniel Geale in the ring, I do see him defeating Rosado, Ishida, Proksa, Adama, and Macklin. But even though Stevens or Geale might be the better fighters, Rubio is perfect for Golovkin right now because the criticisms that Ward and Geale had of Golovkin – that he is in love with his power – have major if not complete accuracy. Rubio will make him pay if he makes mistakes, just as he made Lemieux pay. Now granted, Lemieux has nowhere near the amateur background as Golovkin did, but equally, Rubio is far more experienced as a pro fighter and has faced better competition than has Golovkin, so this puts him in the same position that he was in when he faced Lemieux.

The bottom line is that it will be a great fight, and Golovkin will be caught with clean blows often, tested, and made to look silly more than hurt, and that he will not be the dominating force that we are used to seeing him be in the ring. My hopefully educated guess is Golovkin by KO or TKO on a body shot somewhere between the 7th and 11th rounds, I don’t see the fight going the distance, as Golovkin is simply too powerful, but I see Rubio for sure lasting as long as Rosado, and having his moments in the fight.

So, this is the perfect fight for Golovkin, and will teach him to be efficient with his power and to not neglect his defense when he fights very elite fighters. In my opinion, Golovkin will take the win, and it will be a great learning experience and very necessary preparation for a fight against Chavez or Ward, both of whom have the power to hurt him.

However, neither of these fights is necessary for him in the foreseeable future – let him clean out the middleweight division and keep knocking people out, and, since he will then be the “A” side, make either of those fighters fight him on his terms, weight drained to maybe 164 or so, and then blow them out as well!