Gennady Golovkin has stormed through the competition that has dared step into the ring with him over his three-year run on HBO, stopping everyone he's faced in impressive fashion. The HBO Greatest Hits video above will tell you the corporate story, but Gennady is no mere TV creation. In fact, he's gone from being a low-rated HBO fighter to one of their most reliable draws, and a fighter who can sell tickets on both coasts in the United States.
For fun, here are snippets of my recaps for each of the fights presented in the video.
TKO-5 Grzegorz Proksa (2012)
"Golovkin was a bulldozer with a wrecking ball attached tonight, plowing through the game and very brave Proksa who sure as hell came to win, but pretty quickly found out what a gargantuan task that would be. ... The middleweight division got a shake-up today, and it just got a lot more interesting. And after watching their fights back to back, I think it's pretty easy to understand, frankly, why Felix Sturm didn't want anything to do with Gennady Golovkin."
TKO-7 Gabriel Rosado (2013)
"Gabriel Rosado came to fight, and as a result, his blood stained the ring and everything else in New York City. ... The fight could have been stopped during or after the sixth, but as the seventh round went on and Golovkin continued to brutalize his foe, Rosado's trainer Billy Briscoe put a stop to the fight, telling Rosado's father, 'I've got to stop this fight. Your son's gonna die.'"
KO-3 Matthew Macklin (2013)
"Golovkin shook Macklin on several shots through the first two rounds and change before ending it quickly and viciously with a crushing body shot that put Macklin down for the 10-count in round three, making his best opponent to date look as overmatched and underpowered as everyone else has been so far.
"After the fight, Golovkin said it was a 'regular fight' for him, and there's really no arguing with that based on the evidence we saw tonight. Macklin is a very tough, solid fighter who has more than held his own with the likes of Sergio Martinez and Felix Sturm, not exactly bums. Against Golovkin, he looked positively feeble."
RTD-8 Curtis Stevens (2013)
"Golovkin's power and precision were just too much for Stevens, who was forced to back himself into the ropes constantly. In the eighth round, Stevens toured the ring with his back to the ropes, looking for room to breathe, but Golovkin gave him none. Without a knockdown, it was probably worthy of a 10-8 score, and after that, the stoppage came, and rightfully so."
TKO-3 Daniel Geale (2014)
"The third round was again all Golovkin, with the game and talented Geale deciding late in the frame to mix it up with his opponent. That led to a series of shot that concluded with a right hand dropping Geale, who got to his feet but indicated to referee Mike Ortega that he was done. Ortega stopped the fight at 2:47 of round three.
"Is there a middleweight out there who can really challenge Gennady Golovkin right now? Will he inevitably have to go up to 168 to find a worthy opponent?"
KO-2 Marco Antonio Rubio
"What's clear is that Golovkin is the most imposing force of nature in the middleweight division. Whether or not you call him the best depends mostly on what you thought of Miguel Cotto's win over a hobbled Sergio Martinez, and how seriously you take Cotto's legitimate claim to the lineal championship of the division.
"But Golovkin's 18th knockout win in a row sent yet another statement. It might not be anything we didn't know, but he just doesn't have off nights. He doesn't "fight down" to inferior competition. He treats every fight like it will be the toughest he's faced to date, and he's steamrolling solid if not elite fighters -- the guys who will actually fight him."
TKO-11 Martin Murray
"Murray really has nothing to be ashamed of with this performance, as he had some nice moments of success, and stood up pretty well to Golovkin overall, even with the knockdowns. He never gave up on himself in this fight, as he was battling until the very end. But unlike his prior world title fights, where he left without a belt under debatable circumstances, he was thoroughly beaten in this bout, and Golovkin left no doubts in anyone's mind."
TKO-6 Willie Monroe Jr
"Round six started the way round five did, with Golovkin stinging Monroe on an uppercut, this time worse than before. Another hook hurt Monroe yet again, and then a big flurry put the American challenger back on the canvas for a third time.
"When Monroe rose to his feet, barely beating the count of ten, referee Jack Reiss asked if he wanted to continue. On jelly legs, Monroe told Reiss, 'I'm done,' and the referee stopped the fight.
"The GGG pandemonium continued after the impressive display, which was just what the crowd showed up to see, and they let him know it with raucous applause and more chants.... Gennady Golovkin is box office already, and it's just going to get stronger."