Golovkin Should Stop Stevens Late
Robert Brizel, Head RCM Boxing Correspondent
New York, NY (November 2nd, 2013)– Madison Square Garden, Home Box Office, Main Events and K2 Promotions offer an exciting six bout card of boxing on Saturday evening, November 2, 2013. The main event features WBA and IBO World Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin versus Curtis Stevens in an important crossroads bout, more so for Golovkin as higher level fights will be upcoming if he wins.
Curtis ‘Showtime’ Stevens is also known as ‘Kryptonite’. For those who do not know, Kryptonite is also Superman’s weakness, the one mineral which neutralizes his powers. The Brownsville Brooklyn middleweight appeared to lose every round of a 12 round USNBC middleweight bout with Jesse Brinkley in January 2010. Stevens perhaps won two rounds in losing a ten rounder to future champion Andre Dirrell in June 2007. Venezuelan trial horse Marcos Primera, a loser of 18 of his last 19 bouts, found his lone win when he stopped Stevens in the eighth round of a WBC youth title bout in New York City in July 2006. Now we are expected to believe Stevens, 25-3-1 with 18 knockouts, will be the exceptional fighter who finally beats 27-0 Gennady Golovkin and takes his World Boxing Association and International Boxing Organization world middleweight titles away.
For his part, Golovkin, 27-0, 24 knockouts, Stuttgart, Germany, is in line for Julio Chavez, Sergio Gabriel Martinez, Peter Quillin, Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam, and the best the middleweight division has to offer, with bigger paydays on the horizon if he keeps on winning as he has been winning. Stevens will be Golovkin’s tenth consecutive world title bout after winning the WBO Inter-Continental title. This means Golovkin is 10-0 in title bouts. Excluding two first round knockouts in recent NABF bouts, Stevens is 0-2 in title bouts which have gone past the first round, either getting knocked out or not winning a round.
Outside of former world middleweight champion Kassim Ouma, who made in to the tenth round of a world title bout with Golovkin, no fighter has made it past the eighth round with Golovkin. Simply put, Glovkin hits too hard, his jabs and power punches have too much speed and power, and his punch volume is too overwhelming for Stevens to remain competitive in a long bout. Golovkin should stop Stevens within eight rounds in a bout where Stevens will eventually get knocked down and take a huge beating. With a near four inch height disadvantage, Stevens will never get inside long enough to land any punches of consequence as Golovkin will keep him out of range. Only a tall rapid fire jabber with fast foot movement and similar style can counter Golovkin well enough to beat him, which explains why the Golovkin camp has backed out of fights with Ghana’s Osumanu Adama four times already. Only the speedy Adama could give Golovkin a run for his money.
In undercard bouts, Ola Afolabi should knock out Lukasz Janik within seven rounds to win the vacant IBO World Cruiserweight title. Magomed Abdusalamov is predicted to retain his WBC USNBC Heavyweight title by ten round decision over Mike Perez in what should still prove a tough test for Mago. Dusty Harrison is favored by ten round decision over Josh Torre for the vacant WBC Welterweight youth title. Rising unbeaten super featherweight prospect Joel Diaz is favored by six round decision over Bryne Green. Isa Akberbayev is favored to win a four round decision over Brian Clookey in a battle of young unbeaten but untested cruiserweights.
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