Gennadiy Golovkin is back, and he’s looking for more big drama shows.
Steve Rolls made a good account of himself on Saturday night in New York at Madison Square Garden, but in the fourth round, Golovkin reduced him to rubble. After first hurting Rolls with a chopping, overhand left hook to the top of the head, Golovkin sent him to the canvas with a left hook that caught the Canadian right on the jaw.
Rolls fell face-first to the canvas and did not beat the referee’s three count. Here is a look at the highlights from the fight:
Here is how the boxing community reacted to Golovkin’s win:
Another #BigDramaShow in the books. GGG makes his DAZN debut with a highlight-reel fourth-round TKO and moves on to likely September 14 trilogy fight with Canelo Alvarez #GGGRolls @ Madison Square Garden https://t.co/aZo23wEoFl
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) June 9, 2019
Credit to GGG who looked like GGG. Not what we wanted, but I’m proud of my man Steve Rolls. He gave it a go, threw some big shots and won round 2. When you open up against a HOF puncher, you run the risk of what happened. Helluva lot better than not going for it, though. #boxing https://t.co/WTer9frY47
— Lou DiBella (@loudibella) June 9, 2019
Nice comeback win. Now fight a real fighter, win a belt, and I’ll consider doing the 3rd fight. #Caneloisyourboss
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) June 9, 2019
Gennady Golovkin back with a big fourth-round KO, but looked unusually vulnerable in the opening few rounds. Canelo trilogy seems inevitable for September regardless.
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) June 9, 2019
Rolls appeared to have won the second round with a series of hard combinations that didn’t hurt Golovkin but definitely got his attention. The former middleweight champion stepped up the aggression in the third round and was in all-out assault mode in the fourth leading up to the KO finish. It wasn’t the most complete performance, but on Sunday and Monday morning, all most people will be talking about is the highlight-reel KO.
The victory pushed Golovkin’s record to 39-1-1 and the KO was the 35th of his career. Rolls’ defeat was the first of his career. He fell to 19-1 as a professional. Depending on how he recovers from the loss, he could still be a viable option for up-and-coming middleweights and perhaps even someone like Demetrius Andrade considering it doesn’t appear as though Canelo Alvarez or Golovkin want to face him. Andrade is scheduled to defend his title on June 29 against Maciej Sulecki.
Speaking of Alvarez, Golovkin called for a third fight with the Mexican superstar and fellow DAZN stablemate during his post-fight interview.
It’s a fight most expect to see in September, but if you put any stock into what Oscar De La Hoya (Alvarez’s promoter) said in the tweet above, then it doesn’t sound as if Alvarez is looking to make that fight this soon. If that’s the case, a Golovkin-Andrade fight makes sense. Andrade is the WBO Middleweight Champion, and Alvarez has expressed a desire to unify the 160-pound titles. If Golovkin can defeat Andrade, which is a big if, that may compel him and Golden Boy to make the third fight between Alvarez and GGG.
Overall, it was a strong DAZN debut for Golovkin and he avoided the upset bug that bit Anthony Joshua in the same building last week.
