By David Martinez / www.dmboxing.com
Gennady Golovkin (31-0 / 28 by KO) added an 18th consecutive knockout to his resume on Saturday night making his Southern California (Carson, CA) debut by knocking out veteran Marco Antonio Rubio (59-7-1 / 51 by KO) in the second round retaining his WBA middleweight title.
Rubio forfeited his bid for the title when he failed to make the 160-pound weight at Friday’s weigh-in.
The beginning of the end came In the second round, Golovkin stalked Rubio, backed him to the ropes and landed a left hand that ended the fight, as referee Jack Reiss called the end of the fight at 1:19.
With the win Golovkin list of possible future opponents stand huge with: Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.
In the co-featrure , Nicholas Walters (25-0 / 21 by KO) knocked highly touted Filipino star Nonito Donaire (33-3 / 21 by KO) with a perfectly placed overhand right that dropped Donaire late in round six.
Donaire struggled to his feet, but referee Raul Caiz, Jr. wisely stopped the fight, giving Waters the knockout win and the WBA featherweight title.
Donaire, who had never been knocked down in his professional career, was sent to the canvas for the fisrt time in round three before sent down for good to end the fight.
Both championship fights were televised by HBO.