By Pattee Mak – New York, NY, November 2, 2012
Gennedy “GGG” Golovkin put up his WBA and IBO middleweight titles on the line against Curtis “It’s My Time” Stevens but Golovkin appeared to be much for Stevens who at the end of round 8 the fight was stopped due to a collaboration of punches to Stevens. Golovkin win by TKO. During the 8th round Stevens appeared to be just defending while keeping his hands up and hardly throwing any punches.
Both fighters are known to be heavy hitters but in the end it was all Golovkin. Stevens was dropped by double left hook in the 2nd but was still in the fight until the 7th but at the end of the 8th the referree stopped the bout due to the punishment Stevens received from Golovkin. Golovkin controlled the ring most of the time while backing up Stevens against the rope/corner. I was surprised to see Stevens who’s from New York didn’t have as much of a fan base as Golovkin, who is from Kazakhstan.
During the weigh in, Golovkin weighed in at 159.6 and Stevens weighed in at 159.2.
Golovkin increased his perfect record to 28-0-0, 25 KO’s and Stevens decreased his record to 25-4-0, 14 KO’s.
After the fight Golovkin was asked whom he would like to fight next. He stated “Sergio Martinez”.
In the co-main event Magomed Abdusalamov vs. Mike Perez. Prior to the fight the Heavyweights weighed in at 231.6 for Abdusalamov and 235 for Perez. The crowd was getting a bit antsy for this fight. You could hear the boo’s. Perez was the aggressive one in the ring. In the 9th Perez gets one point deducted for a low blow but that didn’t keep the judges from declaring Perez the winner by UD and therefore taking Abdusalamov’s Heavyweight US NBC belt. The judges scored the bout 97-92; 95-94 and 97-92. Perez kept his perfect record intact, 20-0-0 and Abdusalamov drops to 18-1-0.
Ola Afolabi vs. Lukasz Janik. Afolabi winning by a majority decision. Judges scored the bout 114-114; 117-111 and 115-113 and becoming the new IBO Cruiserweight World Champ. Janik in the end had a bloody mess near his right eye.
Dusty Harrison vs. Josh Torres. Torres couldn’t keep up with Harrison who was the aggressor. Harrison winner by UD and the new Welterweight WBC youth champ. Judges scored the bout 100-90; 98-92 and 98-92.
Joel Diaz Jr. vs. Bryne Green. Lightweight Diaz drove Green to the canvas in the 3rd round due to a body shot and then was down in the 5th. All three judges scored the bout 60-52 for Diaz. Winner by UD.
Isa Akberbayev vs. Brian Clookey. Cruiserweight Akbarbayev controlled most of the action over Clookey the entire 4 rounds while the left eye of Clookey was cut. All 3 judges scored the bout 40-36 for Akbarbayev by UD.
Venue: Theater at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY.
Promoters: K2 Promotions and Main Event
TV: HBO
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
I saw fight of Isa Akbebayev and Brian Clookey and what a great fight. I honestly felt it was a tie. I even read other articles agreeing it was a much closer fight then what judges called it. Brian rocked Isa a few times defently in 2nd and 4th round. Everyone I was with even said it was close and a few said Brian won. I had it even.