Rubio To Challenge Golovkin For Unified World Championship October 18th

It has been announced that longtime Middleweight contender and former world title challenger Marco Antonio Rubio will challenge undefeated WBA/IBO Middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin on October 18th in Carson, California. The fight, which will take place at the StubHub Center will be Golovkin’s twelfth title defense.

In his last fight on July 26th Golovkin scored a third round knockout over former two-time Middleweight world champion Daniel Geale in Madison Square Garden.  Along with eleven successful defenses of his world title, Golovkin also has knocked out his last seventeen opponents registering a career knockout percentage of 90%, stopping twenty-seven of his thirty opponents.

Golovkin will face a dangerous opponent when he faces longtime contender Marco Antonio Rubio.  Rubio, who has twice fought for a world title in the Middleweight division will enter into this fight having won his last six fights with five of those six wins coming inside the distance.  In his career Rubio has fifty-nine wins in sixty-six professional fights with fifty-one of his fifty-nine wins coming by knockout registering a near 78% career knockout percentage. 

Rubio last fought in April of this year, scoring a tenth round knockout over Domenico Spada in a fight for interim status in the World Boxing Council’s (WBC) ratings.  What makes the fight between Golovkin and Rubio so interesting beyond it being a fight matching two dangerous knockout artists against one another is what may be available to the winner.   The current WBC champion in the Middleweight division is Miguel Cotto.  Given that Rubio is challenging Golovkin for his title it will open up a vacancy in the WBC ratings as to who holds interim status or more simply who is the number one contender.

As I stated following Golovkin’s knockout over Daniel Geale last month that a potential fight between Cotto and Golovkin would be a significant draw and would also be a popular pay-per-view attraction.  This fight could theoretically be viewed as Golovkin’s last significant obstacle prior to facing a marquee star of the sport such as Miguel Cotto.  Marco Antonio Rubio certainly is not a fighter to overlook and should be viewed as an extremely dangerous opponent.   Although I look forward to providing further thoughts and analysis as this fight approaches, given both fighters respective styles, punching power, and a potential fight with Miguel Cotto awaiting the winner this could be a memorable encounter.

“And That’s The Boxing Truth.”

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