Golovkin's record defense, a 107th second knockout from Tszyu's son and Alvarez's 54th victory: the main fights of December in boxing

Joshua's Triumph

On December 12, Anthony Joshua defended the WBA (Super), WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight titles.

The Briton missed almost the entire 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and last time entered the ring more than a year ago.

Then he took revenge for the offensive defeat at Andy Ruiz and regained the lost trophies.

As for his rival, Kubrat Pulev, back in 2018 he received the status of a mandatory contender for the IBF belt and from that moment he was waiting in the wings.

Then the Bulgarian defeated Huey Fury by unanimous decision, after which he twice defeated less famous opponents.

However, he failed to compete with Joshua.

Kubrat lasted nine rounds, but during this time he did not manage to create serious problems for Anthony.

Joshua worked at a comfortable low pace, practically not forcing the course of the duel.

He confidently controlled the distance, showered Pulev's head with jabs and occasionally launched a full-scale offensive.

The first such episode occurred in the third round, when Anthony rushed forward without looking back and twice knocked Kubrat down.

In this case, the first time the account was opened after the Bulgarian several times in a row turned his back to the opponent, thus provoking the referee to intervene.

Towards the middle of the fight, Pulev began to realize that he had little chance of coping with the champion, so he began to resort to dirty tricks more and more often.

At every opportunity the Bulgarian climbed to clinch, and at the exit from the capture he constantly beat the Briton in the back of the head.

The judge repeatedly threatened to remove the glasses from Kubrat, but never did so.

In a similar vein, the fight lasted until the ninth round, during which Pulev was again on the floor.

The Bulgarian stagnated in the center of the ring and missed the hardest right uppercut to the jaw.

Three more similar strikes in conjunction with a left hook sent Kubrat to the floor again, but he miraculously managed to get up.

True, after a couple of seconds he was in a deep knockout after an accurate right straight Anthony.

Joshua won the 24th career victory and the ninth in the fight for the world title.

Apparently, in 2021, boxing fans will have a long-awaited unification fight between two British boxers - Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

This was hinted at by both the WBC belt holder himself and the manager of the champion in four prestigious versions of Eddie Hearn.

Moreover, the promoter is sure that even Alexander Usik, who is a mandatory contender for the WBO title, will not interfere with the status duel.

He stated that his client is ready to refuse the trophy, just to fight with his compatriot.

True, in this case, the triumphant will not become the first absolute world heavyweight champion in 21 years.

Tszyu Jr.'s 17th victory

The son of the famous Russian boxer Tim Tszyu took much less time on December 16 to deal with Bowin Morgan and make his third defense of the WBO Global and IBF Australasian junior middleweight titles.

The fight between the athletes did not last even two minutes, during which Tim twice sent the opponent to the canvas.

The show took place in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney in New South Wales, and about 15 thousand spectators were present in the stands of the Banquest stadium.

At the very beginning, the fight was quite equal, but at a certain point, Tim's superiority became clear.

He was faster, more calculating and more technical, and already at the 97th second he knocked his opponent down for the first time.

Morgan went too straight forward and ran into an oncoming right uppercut, followed by a whole combination of powerful punches.

Selfless Bowin managed to recover from the knockdown and expressed a desire to continue the battle, but after ten seconds he missed the smashing right swing.

After him he could not get up.

Tszyu extended his unbeaten streak to 17 fights and won one of the fastest victories in his career.

And in a conversation with a journalist after the fight, he thanked the Russian fans for their support and turned to his father: “Dad, how are you?

Is everything okay? "

It should be noted that the event was interesting not only for boxing fans, but also for MMA fans.

So, within the framework of the tournament, ex-fighter of UFC, PRIDE and K-1 Mark Hunt had his third fight in professional boxing.

The New Zealander lost to Australian Paul Gallen and so far has not managed to get the first victory in a new sport for himself - so far he has one draw and two defeats.

The outbreak of the third battle between Golovkin and Alvarez

Gennady Golovkin continues to regain its former positions in the middleweight division.

After an ambiguous victory over Sergei Derevyanchenko, on December 18 the Kazakhstani faced off against Kamil Sheremeta.

Unlike the Ukrainian, the Pole lost outright to the champion, which was knocked down four times during the fight.

Sheremet found himself on the floor in the first, second, fourth and seventh rounds.

Twice the reason for the fall of the challenger was the trademark left side offset performed by Golovkin, and in the latter case the Pole found himself on the canvas after two missed jabs.

At that moment, it became clear that there was no point in continuing the confrontation, which the referee announced a few minutes later.

The fight was stopped before the eighth round, and the Kazakhstani had a record 21st belt defense in middleweight and bypassed former achievement winner Bernard Hopkins.

A day later, his former rival, Saul Alvarez, won his 54th fight in his career.

Unlike Golovkin, he had to spend all 12 rounds in the ring, but Callum Smith did not become a serious test for the Mexican.

He more than twice surpassed the British in the number of hits (209: 97), while demonstrating a fantastic percentage of hits (43%).

For comparison, his opponent's figure was only 18%.

Of course, the battle between Alvarez and Smith was not as one-sided as the battle between Golovkin and Sheremet.

The superior opponent in anthropometry, Callum controlled the distance well and sometimes delighted his fans with good combinations.

As for the large number of misses, this should be considered more of a merit of Canelo, who once again demonstrated the highest level of defensive skills.

As a result, two judges gave Alvarez 11 rounds, and the third - nine.

The Mexican took the WBA (Super) and The Ring world middleweight titles from his rival, and also won the vacant WBC belt.

Immediately after the end of the fight, Alvarez received a call from Billy Joe Saunders, whom he was supposed to meet back in May 2020.

However, he himself expressed a desire to "fight the best" and announced his readiness to hold a third fight with Golovkin.

Previously, boxers met twice in the ring and both times their confrontation ended with a referee scandal.

Golovkin's side also has nothing against organizing a third fight with Alvarez.

The boxer himself expressed his intention to fight the winner of the battle between Canelo and Smith, and then the Kazakh's manager Eddie Hearn confirmed his client's position.

He said that Gennady wants to have a really big fight and complete the trilogy with Saul.