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Gennady Golovkin Poised To Become Boxing's Biggest Attraction After Floyd Mayweather

The new face of boxing is not from the United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico - the usual powerhouses of the sport. Instead, he hails from the arid lands of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. Gennady Golovkin has arrived, and it looks like he is here to stay.

Boasting of an unblemished record of 34 victories, 31 of which were won via stoppage, it's quite easy to see why Triple G, Golovkin's popular ring alias, is in the running to become boxing's main magnet after unbeaten and former pound-for-pound best fighter Floyd Mayweather exited the sport in a very controversial fashion.

However, for some, Golovkin already has a claim to the throne that Mayweather vacated.

"Golovkin owned the pound-for-pound crown even before Mayweather announced his retirement after his 49th career win last month, over the faded Andre Berto," sports analyst Kevin Mitchell argued. "While the Money Man stretched out his career like a businessman, Golovkin did the business in the ring."

His most recent fight certainly was a case in point.

On Saturday, Oct. 17, Golovkin electrified the jampacked Madison Square Garden in New York City as he pummeled Canada's David Lemieux en route to a victory that unified the WBA, IBF, and IBO interim middleweight titles. In a clash scheduled for 12, the Canadian, who was touted as a lethal threat to Golovkin's run, never won a round and suffered a knockdown in the fifth inning.

The referree stepped to intervene in the eighth round as Lemieux's health appeared to be in danger.

Golovkin's first pay-per-view match was attended by more than 20,000 fight fans, which are solid figures for a non-American boxer fighting on U.S. soil.

After the bout, only the WBO and the WBC trophies remain missing in the Kazakh's collection. The former is held by Irish Andy Lee and the latter is strapped on Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico. Both fighters have scheduled upcoming bouts, but fans are raring to see both of them face off with Golovkin.

Lee will square off against England's Billy Joe Saunders in a title fight on Dec. 19. On the other hand, Cotto will fight former light middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on Nov. 21. Golovkin has dibs on who wins in the Cotto-Alvarez showdown for a future unification bout.

Meanwhile, unbeaten Nicaraguan Roman Gonzalez now sits at the top of the mythical pound-for-pound list. The hard-punching flyweight superstar is unbeaten in 44 fights, with his latest victory coming from last Saturday's showdown that saw ex-world champion Brian Viloria reduced to a shadow of his former self.

Golovkin is fourth in that ranking, below Andre Ward of the United States and Sergey Kovalev of Russia. However, their names and rankings don't mean anything if they can't draw a crowd like Golovkin does.

Sportswriter Jeff Powell ranks former world champion Manny Pacquiao as the best crowd pleaser among active fighters, but given his unimpressive outing against Mayweather Jr., his popularity is reportedly slowly fading.

Golovkin appears to be very much in position in nabbing the whole boxing world, and once he does, nobody is going to argue.


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