Golovkin vs. Lemieux: Live Round-by-Round Results and Highlights

Gennady Golovkin scored his 21st consecutive stoppage victory and earned another title belt for his trouble Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, TKO’ing David Lemieux at 1:32 of Round 8 to cap off his first headlining spot on an HBO pay-per-view show.

Referee Steve Willis intervened after Lemieux, who’d already been dropped once and pummeled, took a series of strong body shots and appeared ready to give in.

"I wanted to give my friends, my fans, the big show, the big event," Golovkin told HBO's Max Kellerman. "(Lemieux's) a very good fighter. He's very strong. I'm not just a great fighter, I'm a boxer, too."

Indeed, Golovkin, who's now 34-0 with 31 KOs and holds the IBF, IBO and WBA middleweight titles, relied far more on jabs and distance against Lemieux, who'd not beaten the same caliber of opponent but was billed as a dangerous puncher.

Instead, he had constant difficulty getting past Golovkin's left hand and was gradually done in by clubbing power shots to the head and devastating shots to the ribs.

Nevertheless, Lemieux felt he'd done enough to warrant a second look.

"I was just waiting for the right moment to connect to him," he told Kellerman.

"I'm not too sure for the stoppage. I could have continued. Tonight I'll keep my mouth shut. I'll meet him in the near future. I want things to be settled. He's a good fighter. I'll give him respect. Hopefully in the near future, I'll get my chance again."

The televised card got started with Tureano Johnson's 12-round rout of Eamonn O'Kane in a middleweight bout, and Luis Ortiz's three-round blowout of Matias Vidondo at heavyweight.

In the final pre-main fight, Roman Gonzalez improved to 44-0 and retained his flyweight title with a ninth-round stoppage of Brian Viloria.