A match-up between WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) and two-time world title challenger Marco Antonio Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KOs) for October 18th at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, according to Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez.
Golovkin is looking to expand his presence to the West Coast, as he’s been fighting on the East Coast and in Monte Carlo in the last year. Fighting Rubio is one of getting the attention of boxing fans in California. Rubio is pretty much the next sacrificial lamb for Golovkin to slaughter.
“It’s not going to be for sure until tomorrow, so he tells me not to say that it’s done,” Sanchez told RingTV.com. “It’s very close, and it’s agreed to terms-wise and on the venue, but it’s not completely signed.”
The Golovkin-Rubio right will be televised on regular HBO. K2 Promotions, the promoters for Golovkin, are hoping to put get him to the next level where he’ll be a pay-per-view attraction in the near future, but for that to happen he’s going to need to have one of the stars of the sport – Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr or Floyd Mayweather Jr – agree to face him.
It’s not looking good that any of them will be fighting Golovkin anytime soon. Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach says that Golovkin brings nothing to the table because he’s not a pay-per-view attraction, and he sees him as a well-protected because he’s not fought any of the top middleweights like Daniel Jacobs or Peter Quillin, both of which fight on Showtime.
Rubio has heavy hands a long list of knockout victims on his resume. Unfortunately, the vast majority of those KOs have come against weak opposition. Rubio’s best known knockout victims are David Lemieux, Matt Vanda, Jose Luis Zertuche, Rigoberto Alvarez, Fitz Vanderpool and Frankie Randall. Rubio fought for world titles in 2009 against Kelly Pavlik and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in 2012, and was beaten by both fighters. Rubio also has losses to Kofi Jantuah, Saul Roman, Zaurbek Baysangurov and Kassim Ouma. Rubio fights well, but when he steps it up to the next level, he gets soundly beaten. Rubio stopped Domenico Spada in the 10th round in his last fight in April.
Golovkin should have no problems knocking Rubio out after punishing him in a one-sided fight for 6-7 rounds. Rubio can take a lot of punishment, but he does have limits as we saw in his 9th round stoppage loss to Pavlik. He’s not likely to let himself get used up by Golovkin if he knows he has no chance. On paper, Rubio stands no chance against Golovkin.
Golovkin defeated former IBF/WBA middleweight champion Daniel Geale by a 3rd round TKO last July in Madison Square Garden in New York. Geale is arguably a better fighter than Rubio. The only difference is he doesn’t seem to have the chin that Rubio has. But in this case it really doesn’t matter how good Rubio’s chin is, he’s going to be turned into a punching bag by Golovkin whether he likes it or not.
