Boxing News: David Lemieux deserves win over Gennady Golovkin after latter's cheap shot on 5th round, claims report

Gennady Golovkin has earned one of the biggest wins of his boxing career, unifying the World Boxing Association, International Boxing Organisation and International Boxing Federation middleweight title belts when he finished off David Lemieux in the eighth round via technical knockout (TKO) on Sunday. However, Golovkin’s convincing victory has been put to debate after the undefeated Kazakh nailed Lemieux with a cheap shot while the latter had been knocked to the canvas in the fifth round of the match.

Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) dominated the unification title bout against Lemieux (34-3, 31 KOs) in a sold-out Madison Square Garden. “GGG” scored his first knockdown in the fifth round after releasing a massive left hand body shot that sent Lemieux kneeling on the canvas. Although Lemieux was already knocked down, Golovkin still attacked the Canadian fighter with a right punch on the head, which, according to Scott Gilfoid of Boxing News 24, should have cost the Kazakh champ the match.

“I think I speak for everyone when I say that Lemieux deserved the win over Golovkin after that cheap shot in the 5th ,” Gilfoid wrote. “I don’t know how referee Steve Willis didn’t boot Golovkin out of the fight for that foul because there’s no way that he [Golovkin] should have gotten away with doing that.”

Gilfoid believes Lemieux was never the same after Golovkin committed the foul, which did not earn any point deduction. Gilfoid also added that the Canadian fighter may have been negatively affected by the cheap shot, whom he claimed never looked good after the knockdown.

HBO analyst Roy Jones also thinks Golovkin should have been booted out of the boxing match after hitting Lemieux while he was knocked to the canvas. Jones actually said during the fight broadcast that Golovkin “would have been disqualified for that.” However, Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports noted that Golovkin did not deserve to be disqualified but should have been subjected to a point deduction instead.

Golovkin is set to fight the winner of the match between World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight title holder Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez next month, as WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has mandated that the winner should defend the title against the Kazakh power puncher early next year.

“The winner of Cotto-Canelo must fight Golovkin,” Sulaiman told Boxing Scene. “Canelo and Cotto are at an elite level in boxing, and Golovkin has been demonstrating that he belongs there too.”

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