Gennady Golovkin vs Curtis Stevens Preview November 2
Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan will be placing his WBA Middleweight crown on the line against Curtis Stevens of America at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday, November 2. The 12-round bout will be broadcast live in North America by HBO. The unbeaten Golovkin enters the ring with a perfect record of 27-0 along with 24 Kos while Stevens, who’ll be fighting in front of his hometown fans, is 25-3 with 18 Kos to his name.
The hard-hitting Golovkin has kept himself busy lately with wins over Nobuhiro Ishida of Japan, Gabriel Rosado of the U.S. and Britain’s Matthew Macklin. The 31-year-old Golovkin had a fine amateur career which he topped off with a silver medal for his homeland at the 2004 Olympic Games.
The 28-year-old Stevens also has quite a bit of power in his fists, but has lost bouts to Andre Dirrell and Jesse Brinkley, which slowed down his progress in the past. However, he’s been looking like a solid prospect lately and knocked Saul Roman out in the first round back in August.
Both men have good hand speed to make their power even more damaging. Golovkin is a good technical boxer who has a solid jab and is effective when he follows it up with straight right hands. He’s also sound defensively as he prefers to use the shoulder roll to keep opponents off of him. He doesn’t throw an enormous amount of punches each round, but with a knockout rate of 89 per cent he doesn’t really have to. His excellent power has seen him win 14 straight fights by knockout.
Along with his power and speed Golovkin’s also quite accurate with his shots, especially when he’s on the inside. Stevens will have to make sure he doesn’t stand still against the champion or he’ll likely pay for it. The challenger needs to show some mobility in this bout or it could turn into a slugfest, which he would be advised to try and avoid. Stevens has a slight 1.5 inch advantage in reach and he’ll need to use his jab even though he’s 3.5 inches shorter and stay off of the ropes.
Stevens best bet will be to go to the body, hook off his jab and throw punches in quick flurries, and make sure he uses his feet to carry him out of danger. If he can do this then he’ll have a better chance of an upset. Both boxers have solid chins, but the body could be a different story and Golovkin should work the challenger downstairs as often as possible.
Style-wise, this should be an entertaining bout. If Stevens can take the champion’s best shots then it could go quite a few rounds and possibly even the distance. The challenger won’t back down and because of this there’s a good chance Golovkin will catch him somewhere along the line and put a stop to his challenge. The champion has the edge in just about all areas including accuracy, power, speed, aggressiveness, chin and defense and while Stevens will give him a good go of it, look for Golovkin to retain his title by a stoppage in the second half of the fight.
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Prediction
Style-wise, this should be an entertaining bout. If Stevens can take the champion’s best shots then it could go quite a few rounds and possibly even the distance. The challenger won’t back down and because of this there’s a good chance Golovkin will catch him somewhere along the line and put a stop to his challenge. The champion has the edge in just about all areas including accuracy, power, speed, aggressiveness, chin and defense and while Stevens will give him a good go of it, look for Golovkin to retain his title by a stoppage in the second half of the fight.
Odds
Sportsbook 5dimes.eu has the latest odds of a Stevens win at +1000 and a Murat victory at -1500. Visit 5Dimes.eu to see up to date odds and to bet on this fight. You should also check out our recent boxing betting predictions to see how we’ve done of late capping the fights.
Curtis Stevens betting • Gennady Golovkin betting