In a nearly silent hotel conference room in front of a handful of spectators today in Düsseldorf, Gennady Golovkin retained his "regular" WBA middleweight title with a first round knockout of American challenger Lajuan Simon.
Golovkin (22-0, 19 KO) was supposed to be chief support for the Wladimir Klitschko vs Jean Marc Mormeck fight tomorrow, but when that fight was scrapped, a few of the undercard fighters were moved to the Ballsaal Interconti-Hotel across town, with Golovkin and Simon leading the four-fight bill.
There wasn't a whole lot in this one, as the 29-year-old Golovkin landed a couple of right hands before putting Simon on the canvas for the ten-count with a left hook. The stoppage came at 2:17 of the opening frame.
Simon falls to 23-4-2 (12 KO). The Philadelphia native had never been stopped before.
Golovkin desires a fight with WBA "super champion" Felix Sturm, but that probably won't happen. His team is also already downplaying a potential fight with WBO titlist Dmitry Pirog, so the end result is this: Everyone at middleweight will keep spinning their wheels, nobody will fight one another because they all say there's no money in it, and thus nobody will attract any irregular attention for their fights, and we'll just keep on going the way it's been going, with Sergio Martinez fighting a couple times per year against guys he likely will defeat without much trouble, and everyone else taking bouts against fringe contenders.