Gennady Golovkin has zero problems with Kamil Szeremeta
Former unified and current IBF middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin had three goals prior to entering the ring with mandatory Kamil Szeremeta. One, he wanted to show fans he is that same “killer” he was before losing a majority decision to boxing’s “cash cow” Canelo Alvarez in September 2018.
Second, he needed an impressive showing against an opponent who many expect him to beat in order to regain the attention on his name he recently lost. With the lack of marketing his name over the last two-years, his unimpressive comeback victory over the unknown Steve Rolls nine months after losing to Canelo and the “questionable” decision he won over top-ranked middleweight Sergiy Derevyanchenko to become a champion again caused fans to lose interest.
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Lastly, he is one title defense away from making middleweight history. A win over Szeremeta would mark 21 total title defenses in a fourteen year career. This would be a new record for the division.
Depending on who you are, one could believe Golovkin achieved all three!
BACK TO FORM…MAYBE
The opening to this bout was completely slow but telling. While Szeremeta wasn’t doing anything to make fans believe he will win this fight, Golovkin showed he lost a bit of his reflexes. Almost every jab the challenger threw landed and snapped back the head of the champion. Furthermore by round three, Golovkin’s mouth began to open signifying he was already getting fatigued. But at 38 years-old, what do you expect?
There were also moments where Golovkin would use a power jab to setup a combination but Szeremeta would land a jab of his own that stopped the champion’s momentum momentarily. Watching Golovkin’s body language and the strategy he employed, it was obvious he was looking for the quick knockout and getting hit was part of the deal.
At the end of the first round, the challenger would get a little too comfortable shooting the jab as he left his right hand too low. This allowed the champion to land an overhand left that put his opponent down seconds before the bell sounded to end the round!
Golovkin would enjoy another knockdown scored after a short right hand sat Szeremeta down again in the second round. Then another in the fourth. The challenger recovered both times but continued to take more punishment only to survive being knocked out again. As the fight went on, this became a trend!
HE’S JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH
There is no doubt that Szeremeta showed heart in this fight. He was getting severely outclassed by a older version of the champion and by the seventh round (and including it), he had been knocked down four times! The jab that was landing early on was still there but it had nothing left on it. In just the middle rounds, he looked like he had already done twelve!
His mouth bloodied and his legs barely underneath him, the challenger makes his way to his corner after the seventh round. However, he would not return for the eighth and rightfully so. Before the minute break was up, the referee would call off the fight on the instruction from the challenger’s corner.
WHAT DID WE LEARN?
Golovkin would get the knockout in a dominating performance. However the story here is more about what Golovkin has lost than what he did to win. Any fan that believed this bout would be “tough” for the champion were probably using that as an argument to support this fight being made.
Besides his reflexes and his stamina, he looked a bit slower in landing his combinations. To his credit, he has been inactive for over a year. However, there are many fighters who are as inactive due to COVID-19. Bottom-line, if the champ was “back to form”, Szeremeta would not have made it passed the fourth round!
Nevertheless, Golovkin is still a nightmare when it comes to C and lower B level fighters. A third fight with arguably the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world Canelo Alvarez is the biggest talking point right now. Regardless of how dominant Golovkin looked, it’s the little things analyst have to pay attention to. Those little things are what will get him beat again by Canelo if he decides to take that fight next!
By: EJ Williams
