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IBF titleholder Gennadiy Golovkin is one of the most destructive forces that boxing’s 160-pound middleweight division has ever seen, and the 38-year-old continued his menacing ways on Friday night in the main event of a DAZN boxing card at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Entering the contest, Golovkin was a huge favorite against mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta. “GGG” proved the oddsmakers were right by smashing the previously undefeated Polish contender Szeremeta into a seventh-round stoppage loss.
Unlike many of Golovkin’s other knockouts, his latest stoppage victory came after multiple knockdowns forced the referee to stop the fight.
You can see all four of the knockdowns from the fight below.
The first one came near the end of Round 1.
The next one happened in Round 2.
GGG knocks Szeremeta down AGAIN 💪
The challenger got through the action in Round 3 but was again dumped to the canvas during the fourth stanza.
GGG knocks Szeremeta down AGAIN 💪
Szeremeta was tough. He didn’t win many of the exchanges, but he kept fighting anyway.
The final knockdown happened in Round 7. This time, a stiff jab from GGG sent his opponent down.
All Business.
GGG was in cruise control all night long. 💯
Szeremeta made it to the end of that round, too. But the fight was stopped before he could come out for the next one.
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Golovkin’s ‘Record-Breaking’ Win
According to his promoter, it was a “record-breaking” win for Golovkin.
The victory was Golovkin’s 21st title defense since he first captured a secondary world title way back in 2010.
Golovkin currently holds one of the four major alphabet championships in boxing’s middleweight division.
Golovkin is the IBF titleholder, which is a major accomplishment in the sport.
Other champs at 160 include Canelo Alvarez (WBA), Demetrius Andrade (WBO), and Jermall Charlo (WBC).
Alvarez is also noted by most as the lineal champ in the division. The 30-year-old Mexican is also The Ring magazine champ at 160 and the TBRB’s middleweight champion, too.
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Best Reactions to GGG vs. Szeremeta
Golovkin is one of the biggest superstars in boxing, so the combat sports community kept their eyes glued to the action when he entered the ring on fight night.
#GGGSzeremeta up now on @DAZNBoxing 🔥
It’s @GGGBoxing time 💥
Programming alert: GGG is about to fight. First time in 14 months.
Former 154-pound unified boxing champion Julian “J-Rock” Williams took offense at the suggestion that Golovkin was breaking the record for middleweight title defenses.
Like most people who closely follow professional boxing, Williams doesn’t consider the WBA “regular” title a legit world championship in the sport.
Bhops title defenses were consecutive and he wasn’t the wba regular champ at any point they need to stop with the misleading stats 🤦🏽♂️
Reporter and producer Jeandra LeBeauf pointed out how much trouble Szeremeta appeared to be in right from the start of the fight.
Former boxing star Sergio Mora was also watching the action.
Down goes Szeremeta! Good news: it was at the end of round 1. Bad news: he has 11 rounds to go! 🤕
#GGGSzeremeta
The Ring’s Cynthia Conte remarked on how loud Golovkin’s body punches sounded with such a small crowd on hand due to the pandemic.
Boxing writer David Greisman pointed out how the inevitable knockout always seemed to be on the way.
Every punch that GGG lands seems to make Szeremeta consider hanging up his gloves and applying to grad school.
Rachel McCarson from “Real Talk with Kelsey and Rachel” noted a younger version of Golovkin would probably have mopped the floor with this same opponent.
Still, Golovkin’s win was seen by most as a praiseworthy performance.
ESPN’s Ariel Helwani noted after the fight that he believes the show could have used more Snoop Dogg and YouTubers like the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones exhibition card had on Triller last month.
Most boxing fans would probably disagree, at least with the YouTuber part of the equation.
Unless, of course, YouTuber Jake Paul or Logan Paul wanted to fight Golovkin next?
Golovkin improved to 41-1-1. Szeremeta fell to 21-1.
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Twitter: @Kelsey_McCarson
YouTube: Real Talk with Kelsey and Rachel