By Jim Calfa: Gennadiy Golovkin removed the last roadblock in his path to a trilogy fight against Canelo Alvarez by stopping Ryota Murata in the ninth round on Saturday in their IBF & WBA middleweight title eliminator in Saitama, Japan.
After four rounds tonight, things looked dire for Golovkin, as Murata was working him over with right hands to the head & powerful body shots that visibly affected him.
The GGG we saw in the first four rounds is in NO way ready to fight Canelo in September in a trilogy fight. At the midpoint of the war, Golovkin looked a lot better, making one believe that he might stand a chance against Canelo if he could perform at that level.
Golovkin needed the win over Murata tonight, but it didn’t look good for him at first.
On social media, boxing fans had Golovkin losing the first four rounds to Murata, and many of them felt that the Kazahstan fighter was on his way to a second career loss.
With Golovkin’s 9th round knockout win, he’s now a two-belt champion at 160. He is ready to move up to 168 to challenge undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) on September 17th, provided he defeats WBA 175-lb champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7th.
Tons of respect for Ryota Murata! You are the champ 🙏🏻 Arigato! pic.twitter.com/5lpUXTv842
— Gennadiy Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) April 9, 2022
As good as Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) is looking right now, you almost wish that Canelo, 31, would delay that fight until after the trilogy fight with Golovkin. Unfortunately, there’s a perfect chance Bivol will beat Canelo, spoiling DAZN & Matchroom Boxing’s plans for a Canelo-Golovkin trilogy match in September on pay-per-view.
The recently turned 40-year-old Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) did what he had to do to overpower the Japanese star Murata (16-3, 13 KOs) tonight, hurting him in the sixth, eighth, and then dropping him in the ninth to get a corner stoppage at the Saitama Super Arena.
Next month, we’re going to see if Canelo made the correct decision by choosing Bivol to fight for a world title at 175 rather than taking on the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Joe Smith Jr. unification fight. The casual boxing fans are assuming that Canelo will defeat Bivol and then meet Golovkin in September. If that’s what happens, it’s great for the sport.
You’ve got to give Golovkin credit for how he came back in the fight, turning the tables on Murata in the sixth round after hitting him with a mighty right hand to the head that knocked his mouthpiece clear across the ring.
The referee Loue Pabon gave the hurt Murata a break by immediately stopping the action by having his mouthpiece reinserted. That move by Pabon gave Murata time to recover, as he was hurt and getting hammered by Golovkin.
Had the referee not taken that step, the chances are that Golovkin would have stopped Murata, 36, in the sixth.
Looking at the overall picture of how Golovkin fought tonight compared to his two contests against Canelo in 2017 and 2018, he’s lost a lot from his game.
Golovkin looked to be approximately 60% of the fighter he was in his two previous fights against Canelo. In contrast, Canelo looks 20% improved from his two fights with Golovkin.
The only area where Golovkin looked vintage was in the power department. When he was unloading shots on Murata in rounds six through nine, he looked as powerful as he did in his fights with Canelo.
Golovkin has really slipped in his stamina and ability to take body shots. Almost the entire fight, Golovkin was dog-tired, and his body language was negative with the way Murata (16-3, 13 KOs) was nailing him with shots to the midsection.
GOLOVKIN IS BACK 👑@GGGBoxing unifies the middleweight division 🙌#GGGMurata pic.twitter.com/mJEgpAXply
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) April 9, 2022
The right hand that Golovkin landed in the sixth round that hurt Murata, gives hope that he can find a similar punch against Canelo in September.
Without that kind of firepower, Golovkin is going to be walked down by Canelo and slowly bludgeoned the way that he did against the British super middleweights that he and his trainer/manager Eddy Reynoso have been hand-picking.
It’s still too early to talk Canelo-Golovkin III fight for September because Canelo still must beat Dmitry Bivol first on May 7th, and that’s going to be a tall order.