The one and only Chuck Norris tells http://BloodyElbow.com
how he and Bruce Lee would've done if the they had mixed martial arts
around in their day and the profound impact martial arts can have on
someone's life.
The one and only Chuck Norris tells http://BloodyElbow.com
how he and Bruce Lee would've done if the they had mixed martial arts
around in their day and the profound impact martial arts can have on
someone's life.
Roman Gonzalez will finally become a household name among boxing fans on Saturday night.Nicaraguan
brawler Roman Gonzalez, better known as "Chocolatito," is unbeaten in
42 professional bouts and is the WBC and The Ring Flyweight champion.
He's just 5-foot-3 and competes in the 112-pound division, yet has
somehow managed to viciously end 36 fights by way of knockout.
Until
recently, Chocolatito was a relative unknown to anyone other than the
most dialed-in boxing fans. That's in no small part because Gonzalez has
only fought in the United States on three occasions, and hasn't done so
since November 2011.
Because of his weight division, the 27-year-old
has also never stepped into the ring in front of an internationally
televised pay-per-view audience before he
defended his two titles at the Forum in Inglewood
against former champion Edgar Sosa. The bout was the co-main event
of the Gennady Golovkin vs. Willie Monroe, Jr. fight that will be on
HBO.
Top 10 to better reflect the current state of talent. That process
was anything but easy, as we endured an exhaustive process of
give-and-take before making our decisions.
Here is the new list:
Roman Gonzalez
Andre Ward
Sergey Kovalev
Gennady Golovkin
Guillermo Rigondeaux
Wladimir Klitschko
Terence Crawford
Manny Pacquiao
Shinsuke Yamanaka
Kell Brook
His placement in the
pound-for-pound rankings could not have come at a better time for
Gonzalez and HBO.
"The
work he does in the gym, along with his discipline and focus makes him
dangerous," said Gonzalez's trainer, Jose Arnulfo Obando. "The combos he
has makes him very powerful for his size."
Each of Gonzalez's
last eight fights have ended in a knockout, and only one lasted beyond
the seventh round. That included a third-round knockout of Valentin Leon
in Gonzalez's home country the last time he stepped into the ring, on
Feb. 28.
Gonzalez and his handlers have floated the possibility of
moving up to the 118-pound division if it means bigger fights in front
of larger audiences. But they caution that they are being very
calculated with every decision they make now that Gonzalez is entering
what will ultimately amount to the most important phase of his career.
"This
is something we've been looking forward to for a very long time,"
Obando said. "It's a great opportunity, thanks to HBO, and it's a big
deal for us."
On
a recent weekday at the gym, Chocolatito remained silent and focused
for the duration of what amounted to about a two-hour workout. He jumped
rope, hit the heavy bag, the speed bag, and worked on tactics with
physio Wilmer Hernandez Cruz.
Gonzalez grew up in a boxing family
in a poor part of Managua, Nicaragua. He eventually learned a lot about
boxing from iconic Nicaraguan boxer Alexis Arguello, a three-time world
champion nicknamed El Flaco Explosivo, or "The Explosive Thin Man."
Arguello is the one who gave him his glorious nickname, Chocolatito,
which means little chocolate. Gonzalez said he and a group of boys would
box every two weeks for the prize of eating food they thought to be
extravagant, such as rice or spaghetti.
He then debuted in 2005 and has not yet been beaten.
"I've
put so much effort into my training, and I'm now getting recognition,"
Gonzalez said. "It motivates me to work even harder every day and to
demonstrate my quality so that I can get opportunities for big fights.
"And hopefully on May 16, they will see the great champion that I am and they can recognize me much more in the U.S."
Andrew John is The Desert Sun's boxing and tennis reporter.
Gennady
Golovkin dominated his middleweight title fight with David Lemieux.
Lets take a look at the best highlights from the bout at Madison Square
Garden in New York City. Golovkin landed 280 of 549 punches compared to
just 89 of 335 for Lemieux. GGG moves to 34-0 with 31 KOs. Golovkin will
likely face the winner of the WBC middleweight title bout between
Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez.
Kazakhstan’s Golovkin Extends Knockout Streak to 21
Gennady Golovkin punching David Lemieux in the second round Saturday at Madison Square Garden.Credit
Rich Schultz/Associated Press
Gennady
Golovkin, a 33-year-old middleweight from Kazakhstan, scored an
eighth-round technical knockout over David Lemieux of Canada on Saturday
night at Madison Square Garden in a title unification bout.
A
raucous announced crowd of 20,548 appeared ready to anoint Golovkin as
boxing’s next big star, chanting his name at regular intervals, and then
exploding after the referee Steve Willis stopped the bout at 1 minute
32 seconds of the eighth.
“I was strong tonight,” Golovkin said. “My punches hurt him.”
Golovkin
knocked Lemieux down with a left hook to the ribs in the closing
seconds of the fifth round. Lemieux rallied briefly, but Golovkin’s
accurate punching throughout the fight earned him the victory. According
to the statistics tracking website Compubox, Golovkin landed more than
half of his punches, 280 out of 549 punches total.
Golovkin cited his jab — which he landed 170 times out of 359 thrown, according to Compubox — as the key to his victory.
“Every jab, I touched him,” Golovkin said.
Abel Sanchez, Golovkin’s trainer, said his fighter’s jab was the “best I’ve seen it in a fight.”
“The jab was magnificent today, and he controlled the fight,” Sanchez said.
Lemieux’s
best moments came in the third and sixth rounds, but over all, he could
not sustain the offensive momentum necessary to keep up with Golovkin.
He lost every round on all three official scorecards at the time of the
stoppage.
“We
prepared well for this fight, but I feel like I waited too long to take
some shots tonight and that really hurt me,” Lemieux said.
Before
Saturday night’s bout, Golovkin had last fought at the Garden on July
26, 2014, when he knocked out Daniel Geale of Australia in the third
round. In an interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman after the fight, which
was broadcast over the Garden’s public address system, Golovkin
memorably invoked a phrase that has defined his climb up the boxing
ranks.
“This is big drama show,” he said, smiling.
Thanks
to the excitement generated by the Geale fight and three subsequent
knockout wins, the big drama show is now taking place before a wider
audience. Compared with a crowd of 8,572 at the Geale fight, Golovkin’s
bout against Lemieux was announced as a sellout.
Golovkin
(34-0, 31 knockouts) has now knocked out 21 consecutive opponents, 12
of them within three rounds. In the process, he has captured the World
Boxing Association and International Boxing Organization championships,
and now he has won the International Boxing Federation championship,
which Lemieux held.
Until
Saturday, Golovkin had been unable to get a highly respected opponent
to challenge him. But Lemieux (34-3, 31 knockouts) was widely thought to
be a significant upgrade. Ranked the No. 4 middleweight contender by
Ring magazine, Lemieux captured the I.B.F. title in June when he
defeated Hassan N’Dam of Cameroon.
“This is the biggest test for me,” Golovkin said before the fight. “He’s the I.B.F. champ. It’s a big situation, unification.”
Saturday’s
card was seen by many in and around boxing as an opportunity for the
sport to move beyond the Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao era.
The May 2 showdown between those superstar welterweights was a hit at
the box office, but the bout’s relative lack of action left many viewers
disappointed.
The
Hall of Fame boxer Oscar De La Hoya — the chairman and chief executive
of Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Lemieux — said he thought
Mayweather’s championship reign harmed the sport.
“Boxing
was a little dull there for a while, with Mayweather,” De La Hoya said.
“With fights not
being exciting, with matches being uneven. So we turn
the page and look forward to the future.”
Enter
Golovkin’s big drama show. With Mayweather having announced his
retirement, and Pacquiao winding down his career, Golovkin — thanks
largely to the offensive style he displayed against Lemieux on Saturday —
has been pegged as a top contender to carry the torch for the sport.
Tom
Loeffler, the managing director of K2 Promotions, which promotes
Golovkin, said it was important for Golovkin to fight in a
crowd-pleasing style.
“If
a fan buys a ticket, or a fan buys a pay-per-view, he has to provide
excitement for those people who are spending money to see him fight,”
Loeffler said.
Next
month in Las Vegas, Canelo Alvarez of Mexico is scheduled to take on
Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico. The winner of that bout could meet Golovkin
before long. Golovkin wants to make that fight soon.
“I want all the belts,” he said. “Now I have two. The winner of Cotto-Canelo for sure.”
De
La Hoya sees an eventual meeting between Golovkin and the Alvarez vs.
Cotto winner as the only way to bring back fans who may have felt
shortchanged by Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.
“If
you build it, they will come,” De La Hoya said. “If you put the best
against the best, then you will slowly but surely build up boxing’s fan
base.”
More fights like this one certainly would not hurt.
A version of this article appears in print on October 18, 2015, on page SP8 of the New York edition with the headline: Kazakhstan’s Golovkin Extends Knockout Streak to 21 .
Muhammad Ali
