Gennady Golovkin did his part to set up a potential mammoth trilogy fight against Canelo Alvarez by knocking out Ryota Murata in Japan.
The great ‘GGG’ - who turned 40 on Friday - bounced back from an uncertain and sluggish start to Saturday’s main event at Saitama Super Arena, with his trademark power not diminished as he eventually took control of an otherwise competitive fight from the fifth round onwards and forced an emphatic stoppage with a succession of vicious shots in the ninth.
A 42nd professional victory and 37th stoppage saw veteran warrior Golovkin add the WBA ‘super’ middleweight title to his IBF and IBO belts, unifying at 160lbs again as well as laying down an impressive marker to arch-rival Canelo in a first appearance inside the ring for 400 days, since he defended the belts recaptured against Sergiy Derevyanchenko with a victory over Kamil Szeremeta in December 2020.
Provided Canelo also overcomes WBA light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in Las Vegas next month, the two great rivals will get the chance to close out one of modern boxing’s biggest and most enduring rivalries later in 2022 in another lucrative high-profile contest.
Murata - an Olympic gold medallist at London 2012 - had been even more inactive of late than Golovkin, having not fought at all since defeating American Steven Butler to retain his title in December 2019.
However, it was the home favourite who settled the better, walking through his opponent’s vaunted power time and time again whilst successfully backing him up with sustained attacks to the body.
Golovkin insisted before the fight that he was only getting better with age, but boxing’s oldest reigning world champion - with the iconic Manny Pacquiao now retired - was beginning to look his years as he seemed notably uncomfortable on the back foot and saw his energy sapped by those repeated body blows.
However, he was still inflicting enough damage of his own and took over the bout from the fifth round, sending Murata’s gumshield flying onto the canvas with a brutal right hand as he upped the tempo and forced the aggressor onto the defensive by unleashing the full extent of his formidable power.
By now Golovkin was loading up at will and having success with a variety of thudding shots, most notably the left hook, rocking Murata with a spiteful right hand straight from the off in round nine. Another emphatic right put Murata down later in the round and his corner rightfully threw in the towel to prevent any further punishment.
On Saturday’s undercard, Junto Nakatani provided the successful second defence of his WBO flyweight world title with a dominant destruction of compatriot Ryota Yamauchi, inflicting heavy damage during a fantastic performance before earning a fully deserved eighth-round stoppage.
There was also an enthralling bloody battle between former WBO super-featherweight world champion Masayuki Ito and Shuichiro Yoshino, with the latter retaining his WBO Asia Pacific and OPBF lightweight titles on points after a nasty clash of heads forced the memorable bout to be waved off prematurely in the penultimate round.
Proceedings opened with a win for Taiga Kato over Hiroka Amaki, while Kazuki Anaguchi was also victorious over Ryuji Yamamoto.
