Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (Getty)
Gennady Golovkin earned his 19th consecutive knockout by stopping Martin Murray in the 11th-round of their Saturday night matchup at the Salle des Étoiles in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Martin, who suffered his first career knockout, was put down three times before referee Luis Pabon stopped the fight 50 seconds into the penultimate round.
Despite entering the fight with 10 to 1 odds stacked against him, Martin gave a good account of himself in the opening rounds, threatening to give GGG a run for his money. But the game Brit was not able to ward off the Golovkin pressure and after being dropped twice in the fourth-round, courtesy of two right hands to the body, the fight was the Kazakhstani’s for the taking.
A third knockdown came at the end of the 10th stanza after Murray ate a hard right to the head. The final knockdown, also from a right to the head, was all the ref needed to see to wave the rest of the fight off.
CompuBox number bare evidence of GGG’s eventual domination, with Golovkin landing 292 of 816 punches and Murray 131 of 469.
Gennady Golovkin, whose record improves to 32-0 with 28 knockouts, came into the fight having flattened Marco Antonio Rubio with a second-round kayo at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. That bout followed vicious knockout victories over Australian Daniel Geale and title holder Osumanu Adama.
Murray’s record drops to 29-2-1 with 12 kayos. He was previously in the ring October 2014, with a technical decision win over Domenico Spada– Spada had suffered a contest-ending cut over his eye. Prior to that, Murray had dispatched Ukrainian Max Bursak and Ghanaian Ishmael Tetteh.
With the victory, Golovkin will carry on his rampage of annihilation as he makes his way up the middleweight rankings. GGG has been yearning for a top-tier challenge and first in his sights: Miguel Cotto.
“I hope, I hope Miguel Cotto because he’s the WBC champion,” Golovkin told HBO’s Max Kellerman after the fight. “My goal is to get all the belts, I need a unification fight.”
But also on the short list of future Golovkin opponents are Saul Canelo, Julio César Chávez, Jr, and Peter Quillin.