By Ian S Palmer
Undefeated Gennady Golovkin will be defending his WBA Middleweight Championship against Gabriel Rosado of Philadelphia on Jan. 19 at the Theater at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The 26-year-old Rosado will climb through the ring ropes with his record of 21-5 with 13 Kos while the champion has a mark of 24-0 with 21 Kos.
The 27-year-old Rosado has been fighting as a pro since 2006 and he’s on a hot streak at the moment with seven straight wins and five of them coming by knockout. His last bout was in September when he stopped Charles Whittaker in the 10th round. That fight was an IBF elimination contest for the junior middleweight crown against champion Cornelius Bundradge, but he decided to take the bout against Golovkin for the middleweight belt. Rosado also had impressive knockout wins over Sechew Powell and Jesus Soto Karass in 2012.
The 30-year-old Golovkin hails from Kazakhstan, but now fights out of Germany. He also turned pro back in 2006 and won his title, the interim version, with a first-round TKO over Milton Nunez in August of 2010. He won the full-fledged belt in his next fight with a third-round KO over Nilson Tapia and has defended it four times. He also captured the vacant IBO Junior Middleweight Championship with a first-round knockout over Lajuan Simon and has defended that crown twice. Golovkin’s last bout was a fifth-round stoppage over Grzegorz Proksa last September. His last 11 bouts have all been stoppages and he hasn’t gone the distance since 2008 when he beat Amar Amari by an eight-round unanimous decision.
In fact, eight rounds are the longest Golovkin has ever gone. His power is so overwhelming that he’s never made it that far. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles going 12 rounds if Rosado can manage to stay on his feet and go the distance. Rosado is six feet tall with a 78-inch reach while Golovkin is 5-foot-10. However, Rosado will be coming up in weight for this bout, which is typically a disadvantage.
In a way though, this means the pressure will be on Golovkin. Rosado might be relaxed in the ring and this could benefit him. He’s quite determined and is a good boxer, but the question is whether or not he’ll be able to handle Golovkin’s power. Rosado has been knocked out before by a power puncher when Alfredo Angulo stopped him in the second round in August of 2009.
Prediction
This could be an exciting showdown and a possible slugfest. Rosado is confident right now and believes in his power. Golovkin is a fine boxer who’s quite accurate with his shots. He isn’t afraid to mix it up and usually offers up quite a lot of action. Rosado would be smart to go to the champion’s body to try and wear him down and needs to make Golovkin respect his power early on. Both of them have good chins, but there could be a knockdown or two here. In fact, there’s a good chance the fight will be stopped before it reaches the end of the 12th round with Golovkin retaining his belts.
