Gennady Golovkin stops Ryota Murata to become unified world middleweight champion

Gennady Golovkin unified the middleweight division again after weathering an early onslaught from Ryota Murata to stop the Japanese in the ninth round in Saitama.

A day after his 40th birthday, Golovkin took some heavy shots early on but started to turn the tide around the halfway point, knocking out his rival's gumshield in the sixth with a bruising right hook.

The Kazakh’s punishing counter right hand stopped Murata in his tracks in the ninth and he fell to the floor as Golovkin swung a wild left haymaker before the towel came in as the referee began the count.

A look back at a BIG GGG stoppage in the 9th.