Gennady Golovkin

By Bob Smith: Like many Americans, I was ignorant of a virtually unknown middleweight titlist for all of the 2000s, and all the way into late 2012. Back then, the two major fights were Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Manny Pacquiao and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Sergio Martinez, and both were great and even electrifying fights.

On you tube in early 2013, I saw a tremendous victory of this nearly unknown fighter against Gregory Proksa, a fighter who fights in a style quite similar to Sergio Martinez and who was  a top 20 middleweight.

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(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Dan Ambrose: WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) needs at least one big victory over a named opponent for him to become a mega-star, according to his trainer Abel Sanchez. He feels that the casual boxing fans are starting to recognize who Golovkin is after seeing him a number of times on HBO.

The hardcore boxing fans have known about Golovkin for a considerable amount of time. But what Golovkin needs is a victory over one of the big names like Floyd Mayweather Jr, Miguel Cotto, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for him to get to the next level.

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(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Jim Dower: Things aren’t going well right now for the 34-year-old Marco Antonio Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KOs). He lost his interim World Boxing Council middleweight title yesterday when he failed to make weight for his fight against WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) for their fight at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Coming in overweight by nearly 2 pounds cost Rubio a big percentage of his $450,000 earnings for the fight. That wouldn’t be so bad if he had a reasonable chance of winning the fight, but he’s an underdog and likely to wind up as Golovkin’s 18th consecutive knockout victim.

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(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Dan Ambrose: Marco Antonio Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KOs) came in nearly two pounds over the weight limit for his title challenge against WBA 160 pound champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) earlier today at the weigh-in.

Rubio weighed in at 161.8 pounds, and missed the 160 pound limit by 1.81 pounds. Rubio will be fined $50,000 per pound over the limit. He had two hours to take off the weight, but he failed to do so. It’s unclear whether he made any effort or not. If so, it would be interesting to know how much weight.

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(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Dan Ambrose: Abel Sanchez, the trainer for World Boxing Association (WBA) Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) doesn’t think much of challenger Marco Antonio Rubio’s 51 knockouts on his 59-6-1, 51 KO record.

Sanchez notes that those knockouts didn’t come against guys that were at the same talent level that Golovkin has. Rubio has scored a lot of knockouts, but against much weaker B, C and D level opposition during his long career. Rubio has had a lot of record-padding fights throughout his 14-year pro career, and he’s rarely mixed it up with really high quality opposition.

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