Boxing | International
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Gennady Golovkin stopped Curtis Stevens after eight rounds in New York on Saturday night to prove he is one of the best boxers, pound for pound, in the world.
The 31-year-old fighting machine from Kazahkstan retained his undefeated record and his WBA and IBO middleweight titles after a highly entertaining fight at Madison Square Garden.
He knocked Stevens down in the second round and kept pounding away until the bout was stopped before the start of the ninth round.
Stevens, 28, fought back well after taking the early count but the American was simply no match for Golovkin, whose record now stands at 28-0, including 25 wins inside the distance.
Stevens, whose corner staff saved him from suffering serious damage by not sending him out for the ninth round, dropped to 25-4, with 18 knockouts.
Golovkin, who won a silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, is now based in Stuttgart, Germany. He showed his class and punching power when he retained his belts by stopping Gabriel Rosado in the seventh round, and Nobuhiro Ishida and Matthew Macklin in the third earlier this year.
Earlier, Mike Perez beat Magomed Abdusalamov on points – 97-92 in two cards and 95-94 – over ten rounds in a heavyweight bout that give the spectators as much value for their money as the main fight did.
Perez, 28, who lost a point for a low blow in the ninth round, is now undefeated at 20-0, including 12 knockouts. Abdusalamov, 32, suffered his first defeat in dropping to 18-1; 18.
Ola Afolabi claimed the vacant IBO cruiserweight title when he beat Lukasz Janik by majority decision – 117-111 and 115-113 against 114-114.
Alofabi, who has Nigerian parents but was born in the UK, improved his record to 20-3-4, with 9 shortcut wins. Janik dropped to 26-2; 14.
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