(Gennady Golovkin [white gloves] knocks out Daniel Geale [black gloves] during their middleweight championship bout at Madison Square Garden. Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports)
NEW YORK CITY — What can you say about a boxer who knocks out the best opponent of his career more easily than he does lesser ones? All you can really do is be in awe. Gennady Golovkin is a terror, as Daniel Geale found out Saturday night on HBO.
The scariest thing about the finishing 3rd round punch is that it was an off-balance counter that Golovkin didn’t put all of his leverage into, and Geale got dropped anyway, partially because, yes, he was caught flush standing straight up in an exchange. But the other part of it is that Golovkin’s power is simply not human. Geale had only been wobbled here or there before in his career, but after that Golovkin right hand he indicated to the referee that no, he wouldn’t be walking forward as directed. He was in no condition to continue anyway.
And Geale fought a good fight! He moved, kept Golovkin chasing, landed some hard shots, switched directions, used his speed. In the 3rd round, prior to his knockdown, he had a sequence where Golovkin missed about five punches in a row, all with Geale dodging them with a different motion. The crowd at Madison Square Garden actually applauded defense, a rare thing in boxing. Surely they recognized how much was at stake for Geale, should he get tagged by GGG. (GGG had in the 2nd dropped him but there was no clear knockdown punch — just a big right hand, a couple misses and some arm-to-shoulder contact that put Geale down.)
Of all the “most feared” men of the past decade plus, none have been as frightening as Golovkin. He said afterward that he wanted to face lineal middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, but the odds of the undersized 160-pound king wanting Golovkin are exceedingly slim, and Cotto has bigger balls than almost anyone in the sport. Before the thought was that no elite opponent would face him until he moved up to super middleweight. At this point all we can do is hope anyone is willing to get into the ring with him.
