Gennady Golovkin ready to match punches with Curtis Stevens

Gennady Golovkin is as polite as fighters come, but with an 89% knockout ratio that rates the best among current world champions, the Big Bear-trained fighter doesn’t have to be over-the-top complimentary of his opponents anymore.

Asked Thursday at a news conference near Los Angeles International Airport about his Nov. 2 opponent, Curtis Stevens (25-3, 18 knockouts), Golovkin said, “Big puncher,” but expressed certainty he could take the New Yorker’s best punch.

“Small, short, tall, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ll see him Nov. 2.”

Golovkin (27-0, 24 KOs) and Stevens will fight at the Madison Square Garden Theater in an HBO-televised bout that is expected to serve as a final push to give the Kazakhstan fighter major opponents in 2014.

“There are a lot of great boxers at 160 [pounds] -- Peter Quillin, Sergio Martinez,” said Golovkin, 31. “I think Sergio will fight me. He can move well, good athlete, fast.”

Former amateur opponent Matt Korobov is also a possible 2014 foe.

Stevens emerged because he was the only leading contender calling out Golovkin, on Twitter and elsewhere.

“We both come forward, I’m very impressed with him,” Stevens said. “But he’s knocking out blown-up 154-pounders, and I’m coming down from 168.

“I’m never intimidated. I want to fight him. I’m just going to be myself, walk to the center of the ring. It’s going to be a brawl ... World War III.”

Golovkin will start training under the supervision of Abel Sanchez on Friday in Big Bear.

“Curtis is an explosive fighter with great knockout power, but I know Gennady can punch, and if they meet in the middle of the ring, it’ll be a great fight. ... I think this is a five-round fight,” Sanchez said.

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