Gennady Golovkin fulfilled his end of his deal with Canelo Alavarez by stopping fellow middleweight world champion Ryota Murata.
Golovkin at times showed signs of fatigue as Murata matched him in the early stages but the hard-hitting Kazakh found a second wind in the middle rounds to slowly but surely break down his opponent. The fight looked to be on the verge of being stopped when Murtata's corner threw in the towel in the ninth round.
Golovkin and Murata had been due to clash last December but the fight was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Four months later, the hard-hitting Kazakh knew only victory would be enough to keep alive his hopes of a trilogy bout with Alvarez later this year, assuming the Mexican overcomes Dmitry Bivol in Las Vegas next month
