Ahhhh you have to love watching a doubleheader where the probability of both fights ending in knockout is high. This Saturday night on HBO After Dark, knockout artists will be on full display at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York. The televised card is a co-feature but the fight we are all looking forward to is highly regarded rising star Gennady Golovkin vs Grzegorz Proksa for Golovkin’s WBA Regular Middleweight and IBO Middleweight titles.
Golovkin will be making his U.S. and HBO debut and will be looking to make a splash. He’s well known in the boxing community but this is an opportunity to get recognition from the casual boxing fan. Currently he holds the WBA Regular and IBO world titles. Golovkin is a heavy hitting aggressive fighter whose style has fueled his dominance through his amateur career and now the professional ranks.
As an amateur, he racked up an astounding record of 350-5. Along the way he defeated eventual professional stars Andre Dirrell, Andy Lee, and Lucian Bute. He was a gold medalist in the 2003 World Amateur Championships and took silver back to his home country of Kazakhstan in the Athens Summer Olympics.
When he decided to turn pro in May of 2006, he went right to work scoring 10 consecutive knockouts to begin his career including 6 before the end of ’06. Golovkin comes into this fight riding another 10 fight KO streak. Within that time, he’s picked up the WBO Inter-Continental Middleweight title in July of 2009 over John Anderson Carvalho in the 2nd round, and the Interim WBA Middleweight title a year after. In his next fight he was able to wipe away the title of interim champ as he won the WBA Regular Middleweight Championship defeating Nelson Julio Tapia in December, 2010. This will be the 4th defense of that title and his 2nd defense of his IBO Middleweight title which he won in Dec. of 2011 knocking out Lujan Simon in the 1st round.
Not only will Proska be a step up in talent for Golovkin, but Golovkin will be a huge step up in talent for Provska. The Polish Proska comes into this bout having back to back wins. His lone loss was a majority decision against Kerry Hope in March of this year and he avenged that loss by TKO’ing Hope in the 8th round this July. Proska was a fill in for Dmitry Pirog who suffered an injury postponing his date with Golovkin to unify titles.
Most think Proska’s flashy style will be the reason he gets sent to the canvas for a 10 count this weekend. He’s also a power puncher with good speed but he has a tendency to drop his guard often. Golovkin is someone you just don’t do that with. The southpaw Proska bypassed step up fights to jump right in with an A level fighter and you can’t fault his decision to do so. He’s ranked #3 by the WBA, #6 by the WBO, #8 by the IBO and #9 by our very own TBV rankings. He’s also a 2 time and current European Middleweight title holder.
Golovkin is hoping that getting through Proska lands him the winner of the Sept. 15th showdown between Julio César Chavez Jr. and Sergio Martinez. If he isn’t awarded that fight, then next up would be Pirog for the unification after his injury heals. Bottom line is this HBO B.A.D. will be a launching pad to bigger and better things for Golovkin.
The 1st fight of the evening will feature solid veteran Sergiy Dzinziruk(37-1 24KO’s) and Puerto Rico’s top Jr. Middleweight prospect Jonathan Gonzalez(15-0 13KO’s). This will be more of a matchup between boxer puncher and puncher with both having power to KO their opponent.
The Ukrainian Dzinziruk enters this weekend coming off a year and a half layoff. He’s trying to bounce back after a beating he received from Sergio Martinez which saw Dzinziruk get dropped 5 times en route to an 8th round TKO loss. That fight was at 160, now he’s back to his natural and undefeated weight of 154. His time at Jr. Middleweight saw him capture the WBO title in 2005. He defended that title 6 times before being stripped for turning down a fight with a mandatory challenger. He’s a technically sound fighter with a good jab. His style has driven him from his decorated amateur career, which includes silver in both the 97′ World Amateur Boxing Championships and the European Championships in 98′, through his time as a professional.
Gonzalez, a knockout machine, is going to have his hands full with Dzinziruk. The first 13 fights of his career were all knockouts. He can’t go in swinging for one this fight, if it’s there take it but otherwise searching for it will be a no-no against a talent like Dzinziruk.
Gonzalez has recently made a change in his team. He’s brought in Pedro Diaz as his trainer and in my opinion that’s a great decision. Not that Gonzalez wasn’t properly trained before, but with Diaz there is no such thing as not being 100% ready like he claimed he wasn’t for his fight with Billy Lyell.
As an amateur, Gonzalez was a silver medalist in the 2007 Pan American Games and lost in his 1st fight of the 2008 Olympic games. His overall record as an amateur is said to be 132-18, impressive. He’s been a rising star in his time a professional which dates back to January 2009. The accolades he has achieved so far as a pro is winning NABO Jr. Middleweight and WBA Fedelatin Jr. Middleweight titles, in such a short period again that’s impressive.
Both fights should bring a lot of excitement. The summer finale of Boxing After Dark will be the rise of Golovkin and Gonzalez. In the opener I expect Dzinziruk to give Gonzalez all he can ask for and more. But that still won’t be enough as I see Gonzalez scoring his 14th knockout by way of 9th or 10th round TKO. The jump in opposition will show that Gonzalez who is ranked #6 by the WBO, #8 by the WBA and #12 by the WBC, is ready for a big time fight and a title run in the near future in a top heavy division.
In the fight we are all waiting for Golovkin will easily defend his titles again Proska. When I say easy I don’t mean that Proska won’t put up a fight while it lasts. What I’m saying is it will be a night of quick work for Golovkin. I predict a 4th round knockout. This will be his first step in being a household name in boxing and set him along the top of the Middleweight division. Tune in to HBO at 9:45 est to catch this, you don’t want to miss card.
