If Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) is feeling the pressure coming into tonight’s pay per view match up, it might have less to do with his opponent, David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs), than with the expectations of what the fight should mean.
With the retirement of Floyd Mayweather Jr., boxing is looking for another marquee superstar and Golovkin fits the bill, both in personality and style. The one knock against him is he’s not American, but the big punch that Golovkin brings to the ring can break the language barrier between him and boxing fans in the United States.
Golovkin is already covered in belts, with the IBO middleweight tile, the WBC middleweight title and the WBA super world middleweight title are all on the line against Lemiuex, who puts up his the IBF middleweight title.
We’re jumping in after a few of the undercards and focusing on the main event tonight. Scoll on down for the live blog. Keep reading for fight preview information.
Here’s the preview that Miguel Ituratte put with his video blog on the fight.
The long awaited HBO pay-per-view featuring the Gennady Golovkin vs David Lemieux middleweight title unification bout at Madison Square Garden is finally here. This Saturday, the Garden will be sold out and the two knock out artists will take center stage.
Since the fight was announced many months ago, Golovkin has been a huge favorite to beat Lemieux, and now that we are closer to the fight that has not changed. Golovkin is 33-0 with 30 KOs and he has held a piece of the middleweight world title since August of 2010. In September of 2012 he made his debut in the United States, and he has gone on since then to become a star in the boxing world.
Since his US debut, he has won all 10 of his fights by stoppage, and he is currently ranked the number one Middleweight in the world. HBO executives think they have built him up enough to the point where this is his first time headlining a pay-per-view event.
You have to give credit to Lemieux and the promoters, who have done a good job of looking credible. Golovkin is not without his critics as some do point out that he is not a speed demon and is very hittable. As little chance as Lemieux is getting, he does have a 24-2 record, so he does have the power to put an end to the fight. And in the pre-fight interviews and face-offs they have had, Golovkin has struggled with his English while Lemieux has come across as very confident and said all the right things.
If Lemieux can do what he says he is going to do, he will make history, but judging from the lines at the sport books, no one is giving Lemieux much of a chance.
The fight is on HBO Pay Per View and should begin sometime around 11:30 p.m. EST. Watch it with me. Golovkin has always put on a good show and Lemieux has plenty of knockout power too. We should get a good fight out of this one that just might be worth the money.
