Yesterday, Kazakh punchmonger Gennady Golovkin (now 34-0) handed down a predictable loss by technical knockout to Quebecois wrecking machine David Lemieux (now 36-3). He did it in a very interesting way.

Lemeiux, who entered the ring rocking a haircut that could best be described as a 'severely receding Macklemore,' or perhaps a 'Trevor Moorehawk' had stated in prefight intereviews that he intended to fight such that Golovkin's impressive skill advantage (375 fights, Olympic silver medal, complete technical perfection) would, somehow, cease to matter. Presumably, Lemeiux intended to turn the fight into an undisciplined brawl, where somehow he could pit his incredible single-punch strength directly against his Golovkin's iron chin and terrifying bilateral power. (I did not say it was a particularly well-advised plan.) He failed.

Lemieux was picked apart by an uncharacteristically (but very effectively) defensive Golovkin, working behind a jab that could better be described as a 'left straight'. Through the early rounds, Lemieux became increasingly desperate to get behind the effective range of Golovkin's jab, stepping in, head perfectly centered, throwing a fusillade of power punches. Golovkin would retreat for a time, come to a sudden stop, and stick another jab as Lemieux continued to come in. By the end of round 4, Lemieux had eaten upwards of 60 jabs, alternately to the bridge of the nose and, interestingly, the sternum. In boxing circles, as far as the subject of straight punches to the body goes, it's often held that one should jab to the belly button, and reserve the right hand for strikes to the heart or xiphoid process. The reasoning propsed is that since the latter two are protected by bones, you need your strong hand so that your strike is felt even through the mediating effect of, say, a skeleton. Golovkin, only subject to human limitations in the most technical sense, threw frequent, stiff jabs to Lemieux's sternum, which seemed to hurt Lemeiux and prevented him from closing further in on Golovkin. Lemieux did eventually succeed in landing some hard shots on Golovkin, mostly classical flurries of straight punches to get Golovkin's hands to the front of his face, followed by hooks to the ear. While this did begin to work near the end of round 5, Golovkin retaliated with a thunderous liver shot which dropped Lemieux to one knee. After the fear had been established, we saw Golovkin return to classic form, stalking Lemeiux down for two more rounds until the referee, having seen enough, called a stop to the bout in round 8. The best thing about this bout by far was that we got to see another side to Golovkin, which is sometimes obscured by his overwhelming power: the fact that his technique is nearly flawless, and very very hard to disrupt. Even though a "muderer" like Golovkin smelled blood after knocking Lemieux down in round 5, when he pressed the attack afterwards he remained respectful of Lemieux's power, attacked from a plethora of different angles, and generally stayed unpredictable as well as defensive.

With that jab of his and the tutelage of Mexican boxing wizard Abel Sanchez, Golovkin appears to have cut one of professional boxing's most famous Gordian knots: how to deliver entertaining fights, while simultaneously ensuring a lengthy career. Short of having the cerebral resillience of a Cesar Chavez or the complete superiority of any of the chronically underrated Black Muderers' Row, it seems another way to do the same thing is to marry brutality with intelligence, ensuring that although you have a reasonably safe fight, your opponent certainly does not. Another interesting lesson was definitely on display here; even though Lemieux had a lot of fight, he didn't necessarily put up much of one.

Image Credit: Public Domain (Via wikimedia commons)