In his return to the ring for the first time in 14 months, Gennadiy Golovkin took a seventh-round TKO win over Kamil Szeremeta retaining his IBF and IBO Middleweight titles. This win allowed Golovkin to set a record with his 21st defense of a Middleweight title. It’s the most world title defenses in the Middleweight division, breaking a tie with Bernard Hopkins.
Gennadiy Golovkin dominates Kamil Szeremeta
Gennadiy Golovkin controlled the fight from start to finish battering Szeremeta using his jab to set up power punches to the head and body. The 38-year-old scored four knockdowns in the fight in the first, second, fourth and seventh round, respectively.
Kamil Szeremeta showed great toughness continuing to trade after getting up off the canvas but it wasn’t enough as the referee waived the fight off in the corner prior to the eighth round awarding the win to Gennadiy Golovkin.
After the bout, Golovkin took to Twitter to highlight his stunning achievement:
This was Triple G’s first fight back since taking a unanimous decision win against Sergiy Derevyanchenko that allowed him to regain the IBF and IBO Middleweight Championships.
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Golovkin won his first title on August 14, 2010, when he beat Milton Nunez via first-round knockout to win the interim WBA Middleweight title. Following three defenses of his WBA title, Golovkin went on to win his first undisputed world title in the IBO Middleweight title after defeating Lajuan Simon via first-round knockout in December 2011.
That success only continued in the years to come, as Golovkin eventually won the interim WBC Middleweight title and IBF Middleweight titles.
Although he’d go on to lose those to Canelo Alvarez in a majority decision loss, Golovkin would win back the IBF and IBO titles in the aforementioned unanimous decision win against Sergiy Derevyanchenko, setting up the opportunity for his history making win against Szeremeta.