Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan knocked out Lajuan Simon of Philadelphia in the first round Friday to keep his WBA middleweight title and remain undefeated.
Golovkin left Simon lying on the canvas after 2 minutes 17 seconds, following a swinging left to his head.
Golovkin, based in Stuttgart, also won the vacant middleweight belt of the fringe IBO. His record is now 22-0 with 19 knockouts. Simon drops to 23-4-2 (12 KOs).
The fight was to have taken place Saturday but was brought forward when Wladimir Klitschko's heavyweight bout with Jean-Marc Mormeck was called off.
Bernd Boente, head of the sports management group that looks after both Golovkin and Klitschko, wants to see the Kazakh fight Felix Sturm, who was held to a draw by British challenger Martin Murray last week.
