By Ian S Palmer
WBA Middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan meets up with veteran Nobuhiro Ishida of Japan on Saturday March 30 in Monaco. Golovkin is undefeated with a perfect record of 25-0 with 22 Kos and recently stopped Gabriel Rosado in January. Golovkin is also a former Olympic silver medalist who competed in the 2004 Summer Games. He’s one of the most exciting fighters around these days and possesses exceptional power. He’s got a solid jab and scary right hand and prefers not to let the judge’s have any effect on his bouts.
Ishida is a solid veteran who has a record of 24-8-2 along with 9 Kos. While he has a few losses on his record, he’s quite durable and has never been stopped. He became an overnight sensation in America in April 2011 when he knocked James Kirkland out in the very first round on national television. However, that could have simply been a case of Ishida catching his opponent cold since he’s not exactly a heavy hitter.
Ishida has been on the losing end tree times in his last five bouts and he said he’ll retire if he loses to Golovkin. His last outing was a unanimous decision loss to Dmitry Pirog and he’s also been beaten by Paul Williams. Ishida isn’t hard to find and hit, and that’s going to pose a huge problem against an accurate power puncher such as Golovkin. The winner of this showdown is hoping to get a matchup with WBC champion Sergio Martinez of Argentina.
Ishida has decent height for a mkiddleweight as he’s 6-foot-1, but he’s also 37 years old. He’s a former WBA Junior Middleweight titleholder and former Japanese champion. He’s got experience, but conventional wisdom suggests that he’s going to struggle here against the champion. He’ll try to keep Golovkin on the outside while the champ tries to make it an inside bout.
Golovkin’s 30 years old and is a few inches shorter at 5-foot-10. He now fights out of Germany, but has started to make a name for himself in North America with some exciting performances on U.S. television. He had a stellar amateur career as he was the world amateur champion a year before he won silver at the Olympics. His knockout percentage currently stands at 88 per cent, which ranks him number one all-time for a champion in the middleweight division.
The champion hasn’t exactly faced the best opposition in the world, but he’s beaten some decent fighters along the way such as Gabriel Rosado, Kassim Ouma, and Grzegorz Proksa. Ishida could actually be considered a step up in class for him.
Prediction
Look for the champion to step inside of Ishida’s long, rangy arms and body and go to work on him. Ishida has been sent to the canvas before and he’ll have a tough task trying to stay upright against Golovkin. Look for Golovkin to eventually where the Japanese challenger down and stop him somewhere in the second half of the 12-round bout.
