By Jeff Aranow: Fighting in front of a big crowd of 16,353 fans, IBF/IBO/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) put Dominic Wade (18-1, 12 KOs) down three times before the fight was stopped in the 2nd round on Saturday night at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
After the fight, Golovkin had a message to WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to bring his WBC belt and give it to him. Golovkin said this because he obviously feels that Canelo won’t be choosing to fight him after he beats Amir Khan in their fight on May 7.
Canelo has made it clear that he wants a catch-weight of 155lbs before he’ll agree to fight Golovkin, and that’s not something that he can enforce.
“I feel great. I’m here now, and I’m here to stay. I’m not going anywhere. Give me my belt, give me my belt! Let’s fight,” said Golovkin via ESPN.com in a direct message to Canelo Alvarez.
Golovkin wasted little time in taking Wade apart in the 1st round in knocking him down. Wade looked like he still was half stunned when he came out for the 2nd round, because he folded up before long in getting knocked down twice by right hands from Golovkin.
Wade did well to stay down after the third knockdown of the fight because if he had gotten back to his feet, he would have likely been badly hurt. By that point, he was so hurt that he wouldn’t have been able to defend himself.
The 34-year-old Golovkin looked very powerful tonight, and would have been a nightmare for Canelo or any other middleweight if they had the bad luck of being inside the ring with him. Canelo likely saw the fight, as he had told the media this week that he planned on watching Golovkin, not because he was scouting him, but rather just to watch boxing.
It’s hard to believe that Canelo wasn’t scouting Golovkin because he needs to make up his mind whether he wants to fight the Kazakhstan fighter or not. After tonight’s performance, it’s very likely that Golovkin scared Canelo away. We’ll find out for sure after Canelo fights Khan on May 7.
The winner of that fight has roughly two weeks to decide whether they want to fight Golovkin or not. Khan has already gone on record to say he wants to move back down to welterweight to challenge WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia rather than fight Golovkin. I guess Khan knows better. Golovkin would likely be open to fighting a welterweight like Kell Brook if he can’t get the fight against the Canelo-Khan winner or a unification fight against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders.
The win for Golovkin was his 22nd consecutive knockout, which stretches all the way back to 2008. It’s hard to believe that anyone could score a string of knockouts dating back eight years in their career. 22 fights are a career for some fighters. While many fighters have started their careers with more knockouts than 22, they didn’t do it against top level opposition like Golovkin has done.
16 of those wins have come while Golovkin was a world champion. Tonight’s win was Golovkin’s 16th consecutive title defense. He’s now within four of tying former middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins’ record of 20 successful title defenses. It would be a pretty impressive fete if Golovkin was able to break Hopkins’ record.
It wasn’t fair for the IBF to pick a raw fighter like the 25-year-old Wade because it was clear from the moment the fight started that the long-armed, easy to hit Al Haymon managed fighter didn’t belong out there. Wade hadn’t done anything to get the fight against Golovkin in the first place other than to beat Sam Soliman by a controversial decision last year. Wade should have lost that fight. It was a mistake for the IBF to let Wade fight for a world title after the way he looked in the Soliman fight.
The good thing for Wade tonight was the fact that he was mercifully taken out quickly and didn’t need to take a lot of punishment before the fight was halted.
“His power is real,” Wade said via ESPN.com. “It was more than I even expected. I was trying to get comfortable in there. Once he hits you, it makes it very difficult to get comfortable. I could have done one or two things a little differently in there, but he’s a great champion, and he has everything you need to be a champion.”
Wade could have used more movement, and he should have tried jabbing more. Instead, Wade stood flat-footed for the most part and tried to trade power shots with Golovkin. It was a recipe for disaster from the start, and it’s surprising that it lasted even two rounds, because Wade would have been knocked out in the 1st round if there was a little more time. Golovkin didn’t go after Wade immediately in the 1st round, which would explain why he was able to make it out of the round.
The first knockdown Golovkin scored in the fight in knocking Wade down at the end of the 1st round pretty much put Wade in the shutdown mode. He was never the same after that knockdown, and looked like a daze in the 2nd round as he came out for the beginning of the round. Wade looked like he was still in shock from what had happened in the previous round.
Compared to the money that Canelo and Miguel Cotto received for their fight last November on HBO PPV, Golovkin made chickenfeed. For tonight’s contest, Golovkin received just $2 million. That’s obviously not bad for someone who only needed to fight for a couple of rounds in blowing out the IBF’s sacrificial lamb, but the small money shows you how far behind Triple G is from being on the same level as Canelo and Cotto. Those fighters aren’t as talented as Golovkin, but they have dedicated fan bases that they can count on to pay to see their fights against guys like Amir Khan.
In the 2nd round, Wade looked like he didn’t want to continue after he was knocked down by a right hand from Golovkin. When Wade was questioned by referee Jack Reiss whether he wanted to continue or not, it looked like he wanted to quit. Wade’s body language was that of someone who didn’t want to be there, and it’s surprised that Reiss didn’t stop the fight at that point.