ALLOW me to paraphrase that old adage referencing friendship by saying, tell me who your favorite fighters are and I’ll tell you who you are.
One of the perks of being a fight columnist is having the opportunity to meet boxing fans from all walks of life and being able to interact with them and exchange ideas about the sport we love.
More often than not, at least in my personal tally, most prefer the punchers and the bangers over the pure boxers.
And most of those I have interfaced with profess a common admiration for Gennady Golovkin, more commonly known as GGG.
GGG. He is a throwback to the old-school warriors of yesteryears, rarely taking a step back and always bringing the fight to his opponent.
He inflicts blunt-force trauma yet, he isnt a brawler, he’s a puncher.
Take not there’s a world of difference between the two. The former is wild and careless with his shots -- the latter, feral but focused.
Yesterday GGG successfully defended his IBF middleweight title by stopping Kamil Szemereta in seven rounds at the Seminole Hard Rock and Casino at Hollywood.
Golovkin (41-1, 36KOs) prominently displayed his dominance throughout the fight and the outcome was never in doubt from the get-go.
Just before the first round ended, GGG landed a short, crisp left hook that knocked down Szemereta and it only got progressively worse for the latter the rest of the night.
He suffered knockdowns in rounds 2 and 4 , and in the seventh, was knocked down with a jab.
That right there pretty much summed up the disparity in talent, skills and power and at the end of the round, the referee was convinced that he had seen enough and called for the denouement of the proceedings, mercifully sparing the 11-1 underdog from taking unnecessary punishment.
BOGEYMAN. This marks GGG’s impressive return after he gave a bit of a lackluster performance against Sergey Derevyanchenko in October of last year.
Though he won that fight clearly, because of his advanced fighting age ( now 38), pundits have been speculating that he was already on the downside of his career.
This brutal stoppage win should have these pundits reconsidering their rather premature assessments. After all,in this day and age it’s not uncommon to see athletes in their 40s still at the top of their games.
So far, the only blemish on his record has been that disputed decision loss to Canelo Alvarez in the rematch and in this latest victory looked to be in tremendous physical shape.
It’s almost like the pandemic lull has given his body some much-needed rest and he is now ready to re-assume his role as the middleweight division’s resident bogeyman.
VERBATIM. “He can say whatever. But let me put it this way -- If I got an opportunity to legally kill a person in the ring, I might seize it.”
-- GGG on fighting Oscar dela Hoya (www.abscbn.com)
LAST ROUND. It’s on Hon. Wilson Ibones , presiding judge of MCTC Tabuelan-Tuburan, who recently celebrated his birthday. Cheers!