Golovkin Puts Wade Away in Two

Golovkin Puts Wade Away – The Inglewood Forum was sold to capacity this past Saturday night as HBO Boxing rolled into town with the Golovkin-Gonzalez show. The main event saw middleweight superstar Gennady Golovkin face mandatory challenger Dominic Wade, while Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez took on the challenge of McWilliams Arroyo in defense of his WBC flyweight title.

The broadcast started with lightweight action as undefeated Pedro Duran (13-0) faced Pedro Lopez (6-2-1) in an eight round bout. Lopez was game but outclassed, as he was dropped in the first two rounds by Duran’s power.  Though Lopez continued to compete, Duran kept up the precise punching and Lopez begin to show swelling around the eye. Things just got worse for Lopez with the swelling in round four, and he wisely did not come out for the fifth round to give Duran the TKO win.

Roman Gonzalez entered the ring against McWilliams Arroyo as a huge favorite. No longer a bit of an unknown, the Nicaraguan boxer nicknamed “Chocolatito” now wears the unofficial title as the best pound for pound fighter in the world and the spotlight is bigger than ever.

PIC: Arroyo and Gonzalez come out at the start of round one in front of a packed Inglewood Forum crowd.

In typical fashion, Gonzalez came out and engaged in a feeling out process, seeming to want to see what Arroyo had to offer. Arroyo was firing his powerful left hook, but Gonzalez always answered with power punches of his own. By the third round, Gonzalez was beginning to step up the pressure and Arroyo spent the round back pedalling.

Gonzalez set such a high pace from the start that he was logging rounds by just outworking Arroyo. To his credit, the solidly conditioned Arroyo made Gonzalez work the full twelve rounds and never break down the way other “Chocolatito” opponents have in the past, but the judges had the fight for Gonzalez via wide unanimous decision.

Afterwards, Gonzalez state he wanted to do one more fight at flyweight before moving up to the 115 lb weight division.

The wide win by Gonzalez set the stage for “Triple G” who entered the fight with Dominic Wade an even wider favorite than Gonzalez was.

In the opening round, after a feeling out period, Golovkin assumed the role of the aggressor. In the waning seconds of the round, he landed a big right to the head that knocked Wade to the canvas. Wade survived only to find Golovkin coming in more aggressively in round two. Golovkin landed another right that sent Wade down but Wade got up, telling the ref he wanted to continue. Golovkin’s killer instinct was awakened, and it was only a few seconds later that he sent Wade to the canvas again. This time, the referee had no choice but to stop it as Wade did not beat the ten count. Golovkin gave the crowd the ending they wanted and he now focuses on whoever will step up next to take him on.

The live event, promoted by Tom Loeffler, featured six fights in all. Here are the complete results.

April 23rd, 2016 – Inglewood Forum
Los Angeles, California

Complete Results:

Middle 12 RD: Gennady Golovkin over Dominic Wade via TKO @2:37 in RD 2.
Flyweight 12 RD: Roman Gonzalez over McWilliams Arroyo (119-109,119-109,120-108).
Light 8 RD: Pedro Duran over Pedro Lopez via TKO @3:00 of RD 4.
Fly 6×2 RD: Senesia Estrada over Selene Lopez via UD (60-54,60-54,60-54).
Light Fly 6×2 RD: Kenia Enriquez over Amaris Quintana via TKO @:16 of RD 5.
Super Light 6 RD: Ryan Martin over Rosbel Montoya via TKO @1:51 of RD 5.

Check out the results “Golovkin Blasts Wade, Gonzalez Outpoints Arroyo” at The Boxing Channel.