By Jackie Kallen
Madison Square garden will be alive with action this weekend as three title fights take place at MSG. I think the best fight on the card will be the Golovkin/Rosado fight but the other two are interesting as well.
When the 30 year old Golovkin from Kazakhzan, now living in Germany, faces Philly’s Gabriel Rosado for the IBO and WBA middleweight belts, he will be facing a hungry kid three years younger who wants nothing more than to dethrone the G man. But does Rosado have the guns to win this shoot out?
Golovkin is undefeated and has a huge KO ratio. There is no doubt that he can pound with the best of them. Alfredo Angulo destroyed Rosado in the second round a few years ago and a couple of years ago he lost a decision to Derek Ennis. This is definitely a huge step up for the kid they call “King.”
I love seeing the underdog win and I usually find myself pulling for them, especially in a close fight. But this is a real uphill battle for Rosado. He will need to dig as deep as he can to destroy this European warrior. I have personal connections to both men so I am not really pulling for either one. In this case, I just hope we have a good, competitive fight.
Featherweight Miguel Angel Garcia is putting his undefeated record on the line for the WBO title when he faces off against journeyman Orlando Salido. Though he is only 32 years old, Salido is the veteran of 53 fights. He has lost 11 of them, getting knocked out five times. He is good test for the 25 year old challenger, who beat my former fighter Matt Remillard in 2011 by wasting him in the 10th round.
It is sad how life sometimes works. Garcia is at the top of his game, fighting the best men out there, and Remillard is in prison. Matt is serving a five-year sentence for cracking a man’s head with a baseball bat. It was allegedly a fight over a girlfriend. One can only wish he had focused his time and aggression on his career–not on a woman.
The third title fight this weekend will feature jr. featherweight Juan Carlos Burgos against Roman Martinez. Both men have suffered one loss and they both under 30 years old. This is a fairly even match and it comes down to the old feud between Mexican fighters and Puerto Rican fighters. The fans at MSG will no doubt be pulling loudly for Martinez who hails from Vega Baja, PR.
On the undercard, I will be closely watching Detroit sensation Tony Harrison, who is 11-0 with 8 knock-outs. The 22 year old junior middleweight seems destined to follow in the footsteps of Thomas Hearns and James Toney. He is the grandson of legendary Detroit boxer Henry Hank. He has what it takes to add his name to the list of champions from the Motor City.