By Francisco Salazar

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - "Give me my belt."

Those words by Gennady Golovkin seemed to resonate throughout The Forum in Inglewood and social media after he stopped Dominic Wade in the second round of a fight that was not likely going 12 scheduled rounds.

Golovkin improves to 35-0, 32 KOs, while Wade drops to 18-1, 12 KOs.

While Golovkin did what he had to do against Wade Saturday night, he was hoping a fight is in the works and not just talked about again and again.

With a potential Alvarez fight hanging over everyone's head, Golovkin still set his sights on Wade. Then again, he is a consummate pro.

Wade won the right to face Golovkin and earn a $500,000 payday when he defeated Sam Soliman last June, even though skeptics doubted he won the fight or deserved a mandatory challenge to the IBF title.

Golovkin, who won his 22nd fight in a row by knockout, gave Wade credit, acknowledging he was in that same situation when he made his American debut three and half years ago.

Golovkin worked from the center of the ring, jabbing and looking for openings in Wade's guard. Wade came to fight, but some wondered whether how he would react when he would feel Golovkin's power.

That answer came towards the end of the first round, when Golovkin dropped Wade with a right cross to the side of the head. Wade was able to make it out of the round.

Things did not get better for Wade the following round. With about a minute left in the round, a right cross dropped Wade to the canvas. Wade struggled to get up, but beat the count. The end looked inevitable and it was as Golovkin ended matters with another right cross, dropping Wade a third time. Referee Jack Reiss counted Wade out at 2:37.

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Golovkin connected on 54 of 133 punches. Wade threw 75 punches, landing 22 of them.

There have been some rumors of Golovkin moving up to 168 pounds, with Gilberto Ramirez being a likely foe.

That will not happen anytime soon as Golovkin is dead-set on unifying the middleweight world title belts.

One obvious opponent is Alvarez, but indications are both will not face each other this year. Word is both could square off sometime in 2017.

Golovkin may be getting frustrated a fight has not been set up against the popular Mexican fighter. Golovkin has taken step-aside from Miguel Cotto, but that may stop with Alvarez, who fights Amir Khan on May 7 in Las Vegas, Nev.

The WBC allowed Alvarez a voluntary defense of the title he won from Cotto on Nov. 21. Whether the WBC enforces its rules of facing Golovkin, the interim WBC titleholder, remains to be seen.

Golovkin just wants to fight for a belt.

"I'm still (WBA, IBO, IBF, and interim WBC) champion, of course," said Golovkin after the fight to a live crowd of 16,353. " I need a big name or big fight to please the fans."

"I need my belt."

In the co-feature bout that was broadcast on HBO, Roman 'Chocolatito' Gonzalez won a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision over McWilliams Arroyo.

Gonzalez improves to 45-0, 38 KOs, while Arroyo drops to 16-3, 14 KOs.

Arroyo seemed to win the opening round, but it was all Gonzalez the rest of the way. Gonzalez was at his best walking Arroyo down, allowing him to dig to the body with left hooks and scoring with right uppercuts to the head. A left hook to the head in round three by Gonzalez seemed to momentarily stun the fighter from Puerto Rico.

Arroyo had to deal with an equipment mishap in the fourth round when the sole of his right shoe was torn off. After the round ended, Arroyo's corner wrapped tape around the shoe.

Gonzalez really opened up in the middle rounds, reeling off four or five-punch combinations. Arroyo attempted to hold his ground, but would get countered with repeated hooks to the head or body for his trouble.

Gonzalez continued mixing his attack very well, leaving Arroyo to wonder how to protect himself. That was the case in round eight when Gonzalez was relentless with his attack of hard shots.

Arroyo's punch output seemed to drop as the bout progressed. While Gonzalez continued to press forward and look for a knockout, Arroyo seemed resigned to hold on and survive, especially in the last two rounds.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Gonzalez, 119-109, 119-109, and 120-108.

Gonzalez threw 1132 total punches, connecting on 360. Arroyo landed 193 of 711 punches.

"This fight was not easy," said Gonzalez, whose streak of 10 consecutive knockout wins was snapped. "He moved quite a bit.

Gonzalez reportedly weighted 126 pounds Saturday night before stepping in the ring against Arroyo. Gonzalez downplayed the weigh issue after the fight.

"I still have another year in me to fight at 112 pounds."

Francisco A. Salazar has written for krikya360.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at FSalazarBoxing and or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing