Middleweight champion Golovkin chasing 15th straight KO
Should Gennady Golovkin get through the Saturday night challenge of middleweight contender Curtis Stevens in Brooklyn, the Russian world middleweight champion is aiming to fight four times in 2014.
If he can find four guys who’ll fight him.
The 31-year-old Golovkin (27-0, 24 knockouts) takes a streak of 14 consecutive knockouts to the Saturday bout on HBO, and his 89% knockout percentage is the best among any world champion.
Golovkin, who trains in Big Bear for San Gabriel Valley resident Abel Sanchez, showed strides by knocking out Matthew Macklin with a third-round body shot in June.
“Gennady has a lot of natural punching power,” promoter Tom Loeffler said. “His timing and balance add to his raw power.”
Stevens (25-3, 18 KOs) has impressed by not shying from the Golovkin threat. A world-title-shot payday doesn’t hurt, but the good puncher in his own right should make the bout entertaining.
“Neither guy is going backward; it’ll be good for as long as it lasts,” Loeffler said.
The intrigue with a Golovkin victory is what he’ll do now that he’s tapped into the name-recognition boost of fighting this year in New York.
Loeffler said a date at the Forum in Inglewood, which has been renovated, is a 2014 possibility along with opponents including world middleweight champion Sergio Martinez and former champion Julio Cesar Chavez.
“There’s a number of exciting opportunities in the division,” including another champion, Peter Quillin, who is problematic because Golovkin broadcaster HBO currently will not show fighters from Golden Boy Promotions, which employs Quillin.
“The biggest targets are Martinez and Chavez,” Loeffler said. “Martinez is a proud champion who views himself as the world’s best middleweight. We view Gennady as the world’s best. The only way to settle it is to have them fight.”
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Twitter: @latimespugmire
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