Live from Salle Des Etoiles in Monte Carlo, Monaco, current WBA and IBO Middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin (26-0, 23 KOs) needed just a little over eight minutes to hand the usually durable Nobuhiro Ishida (24-9-2, 9 KOs) his first knock-out loss in 35 professional bouts.
Triple G’s 23rd knock-out as a prizefighter occurred only nine weeks after his previous stoppage victory over Junior Middleweight contender Gabriel Rosado, which happened on January 19th in Madison Square Garden in New York City.
A surprisingly aggressive Ishida claimed his spot in the center of the ring and attempted to dictate the pace of the action by working his long, rangy jab in round one. Ishida held his own during the first three minutes of the contest, while the incumbent champ circled the tall Japanese fighter to find openings for his own jab and straight right hand. Both men landed good shots and showed their respective beards in the opening stanza.
In the second round, Golovkin buckled Ishida with a hard overhand right and followed it up with a series of punishing shots to dominate the entire stanza. Most present at ringside knew it was only a matter of time before the incumbent title holder put his seemingly overmatched challenger away.
In the third and final round, Triple G almost decapitated the brave Ishida with an overhand right that virtually knocked him out of the ring at the 50 second mark. Veteran referee Stanley Christodoulou immediately called a halt to the bout as the gallant Japanese native was suspended across the bottom rope, giving Gennady Golovkin his 26th victory and his seventh successful title defense.
After the three round contest, the WBA Champion seemed elated concerning his performance.
“Thank you everybody…I’ m very happy today,” exclaimed Gennady Golovkin. “It doesn’t matter who I fight next…I’m ready for anybody. I hope it’s Sergio Martinez…I’m ready.”
After recently terminating their once fruitful relationship with Golden Boy Promotions, expect Ken Hershman and company to showcase the hard punching Kazakhstani fighter throughout their entire 2013 boxing schedule as one of the new faces of the premium cable network.
Gennady Golovkin currently fights under the K2 Promotional banner.
Future bouts with Sergio Martinez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Matthew Macklin, or Andy Lee are very intriguing match-ups that would be viable for HBO purchase.
Other boxing results on the card:
Edwin Rodriguez UD 10 Ezequiel Maderna
Denis Grachev SD 10 Zsolt Erdei
Sergey Rabchenko TKO 2 Adriano Nicchi
Ilunga Makabu TKO 3 Tamas Lodi
Kirill Relikh TKO 1 Paolo Gassani
