By Luke Furman

Former EBU middleweight champion Grzegorz Proksa (28-2, 21 KOs) is very impressed with the punching power of WBA "regular" champion Gennady Golovkin (24-0, 21 KOs). Proksa, who had never been down as a pro, got dropped three times by Golovkin on Saturday night at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York. After the third knockdown, in the fifth round, the referee had seen enough and waved off the fight.

"The guy hits like a hammer. I tried everything, but it did not work. You have to give him credit, because he had a good handle on the situation and it was an honor to meet him in the ring. Even though I lost every round, I wanted to fight on. [Early on] it seemed to me that I was resistant to punches, but eventually they caught up with me. For each subsequent start, I went out out with another plan, trying to surprise him, but he is really great," Proksa said.

"I'm going to take a bit of a rest. There is no reason for us to have avoided fighting him - and I think today I fought not only the best fighter in my weight class, but perhaps even in the pound for pound rankings."