World Weekend Boxing Roundup: Golovkin, Abraham Win

Boxing came back to life a bit this weekend with world champs Gennady Golovkin and Arthur Abraham winning tough fights on Saturday evening in Europe.

Fighting at Le Casino in Monaco, Monte Carlo for the third time in as many years, WBA middleweight “super” champ Golovkin defeated challenger Martin Murray in the 11th frame.

While Golovkin won almost every round, Murray showed durability and heart, refusing to be intimidated by the more powerful and skilled champion.

The Englishman gave Golovkin his hardest fight, and was the opponent that lasted the longest, since Kassim Ouma took Golovkin 10 rounds in 2011.

Golovkin pressed Murray from the start but the challenger wisely did not simply stay on the outside but rather used his jab and movement to develop a fairly successful offense, centered around the left hook to the body.

Unfortunately for Murray, however, this strategy fell apart once Golovkin determined that his adversary lacked hurtful punching ability and began to develop his own offense, which, given the champion’s tremendous punch power, was far more effective.

Golovkin began landing sharp headshots and once Murray felt the heavy hands of his antagonist, he began to clinch whenever the Kazakh slugger got in close.

In the fourth, Murray was canvasses by a right to the pit of his stomach and was put down again by another right, this time to the ribs, but made it to his feet in time on both occasions.

From that point on, Murray became very cautious and used movement to try and nullify Golovkin’s tactics. There were a few points along the way where the champion slowed his offense to take a breather and Murray took advantage of this to land some decent combinations to the head and body.

Golovkin was highly effective with his punch selection and footwork and was never bothered by anything Murray landed while the challenger was rocked many times and saved by the bell more than once.

Murray showed massive heart by continuing to fight back against an opponent who was far more skillful and effective but was down again in the tenth.

In the 11th frame, Murray was reeling around the ring after being hurt by a right hand to the temple. Smelling blood, Golovkin attacked the challenger with big shots, prompting referee Luis Pabon to step in at 0:50 of the round.

Golovkin answered some questions about his abilities as he showed no stamina issues and displayed a good chin while facing an opponent who punched back and could somewhat take the champion’s power.

But the performance also raised some new questions: Murray didn’t have much problem hitting Golovkin – what will happen if “GGG” faces someone who can punch hard and is bigger and more durable than Murray, such as proposed opponent and super middle world champ Carl Froch?

Or, if Golovkin meets a smaller, quicker and more skilled rival than Murray, such as proposed opponent and two-weight world champ Floyd Mayweather Jr?

This could be complicated by the possibility that Golovkin, now 32-0 (29), carried Murray, 29-2-1 (12), in order to get some rounds in and could have finished off the challenger at any point during the bout.

In any case, it will be very interesting to witness how Golovkin’s career develops, particularly if he gets his stated wish to unify the titles against WBC middleweight champ Miguel Cotto.

And this pairing is likely to occur as Golovkin is also the WBC Interim middleweight champ and the victory over Murray carried with it the number one challenger spot in the WBC ranking, making “GGG” Cotto’s mandatory challenger.

There were three good scraps on the undercard to report as well.

WBA/IBO minimumweight champ Hekkie Budler, 28-1 (9), made a successful defense against Jesus Silvestre, 30-6 (22), by scores of 117-110, 115-112 and 115-112.

Budler overcame a slow start and an early low blow campaign by Silvestre, who lost a point for it in the second round, to produce the win after an all-action thriller between the two boxers.

At bantamweight, southpaw veteran Lee Haskins, 31-3 (13), recaptured the European title he held briefly in 2012 with a 79-73, 78-74, 78-74 technical decision over Omar Lamiri, 13-2 (5), after eight rounds of combat.

The tricky style of Haskins and Lamir’s relative inexperience allowed the former champ to win most of the rounds and exchanges until an accidental head clash produced a bad cut above the right eye of Haskins, stopping the contest.

Haskins is ranked #3 with the WBC, #13 with the WBA, #12 in the WBO and #6 in the IBF and could soon obtain a long sought after world title opportunity but with his difficult southpaw style would probably only get a title shot if he becomes a mandatory challenger.

At heavyweight, Hughie Fury, 15-0 (8), passed a stern test against opponent Andriy Rudenko, 24-2 (16), to produce a 98-92, 98-91, 97-92 points verdict.

The taller Fury worked effectively behind a jab while Rudenko looked for one big shot that never came.

Heading over to the O2 World Arena in Berlin, Germany, WBO super middle champ Arthur Abraham faced challenger Paul Smith in a rematch.

After having lost the first contest in September by surprisingly wide margins after putting up a competitive effort, Smith began the second Abraham clash in ferocious fashion, mounting a spirited attack on the typically slow starting champion.

Abraham seemed taken aback by the challenger’s tactic and it took a couple of rounds before the champion began to mount his own offensive forays, which came in spurts.

Smith was the busier fighter in the bout and landed well at times but aside from a spearing body shot around the midway point of the contest, couldn’t hurt the sturdy Abraham.

Abraham picked off much of Smith’s punches with a tight, high guard around the head and was very effective when he came out of his shell to put Smith on the ropes for long sequences of punches.

Smith could only shell up into his own high guard defense when these bursts occurred from Abraham, and in this way the champion was able to “steal” rounds from the more active challenger.

In the later frames Abraham hurt Smith with headshots on a couple of occasions and the challenger appeared to slow down a bit during the championship rounds as the champion finished strongly.

The biggest problem for Smith was the same that Martin Murray experienced against Gennady Golovkin; he didn’t punch hard enough to trouble the opponent.

But Smith, 35-5 (20), mounted a fine effort against Abraham, 42-4 (28), and appeared to win more rounds than the official scores of 117-111, 117-111 and 116-112 indicated.

Abraham could be looking at a fourth fight with Robert Stieglitz, after winning two and losing one for the WBO crown in 2012, 2013 and 2014, as Stieglitz is Abraham’s mandatory challenger.

Abraham, however, has indicated that he wishes to face former middleweight world champion Felix Sturm in what would be a lucrative pairing in the German market.