By Jake Donovan, photos by Naoki Fukuda

Gennady Golovkin and Marco Antonio Rubio square off in a 12-round middleweight clash at the sold-out StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Rubio was first to the scales, but will have to make another visit. The longtime veteran stripped down to his birthday suit, but still weighed in at 161.8 lb., nearly two pounds over the 160 lb. middleweight limit. Rubio had two hours to cut the weight, but instead he made a decision to cut a monetary deal instead for a reported $100,000 dollars from his purse.

Golovkin had no trouble whatsoever making weight, coming in at a trim and ready 159 lb.

Fans turned out in droves for the West Coast debut of Golovkin (30-0, 27KOs), who ascension to stardom has been as explosive as his in-ring results. The Kazakhstani has scored 17 straight knockouts heading into Saturday, including a 100% knockout to win ratio over the course of a middleweight title reign more than four years deep.

Rubio (59-6-1, 51KOs) makes his third attempt at a middleweight bout. His past two tries ended in losses, coming up well short versus then-lineal middleweight king Kelly Pavlik in 2009, and most recently in a 12-round points loss to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in Feb. '12.