On This Day: June 29th

2013: Two-time European champion Matthew Macklin was stopped early by Kazakh king Gennady Golovkin in a WBA middleweight World title fight at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino. The Tipperary Tornado was put down in the third by a rib-breaking body-shot described by Lou DiBella as “the hardest body-shot possibly I’ve ever seen.”

The always-game Macklin lost a disputed decision to Felix Sturm two years previously, but was completely outclassed by Golovkin this night in Connecticut.

In the following years Macklin would strongly state his belief that Golovkin stands untouched among current middleweights and shared some kind words with the Central Asian following his retirement announcement.

The Birmingham-born fighter would speak freely about the loss throughout his career, and we will leave you with our favourite insight into how good GGG is with an excerpt from a piece with Glynn Evans where Macklin describes Golovkin as being “able to apply intense pressure without throwing many punches or exerting much pressure himself. He’s a master at getting opponents to burn nervous energy. Against me, he was bowling forward in second gear, I was darting backwards in fifth.”