During a Wednesday conference call with members of the media in advance of his Nov. 2 clash with power-punching WBA middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin at Madison Square Garden, Brooklyn-based Curtis “Showtime” Stevens dismissed the hype around Golovkin, yet again, while also explaining his reasons for not pursiing fights with RING and WBC champion Sergio Martinez as well as WBO counterpart Peter Quillin.

“Golovkin is the so-called ‘Most-Feared Middleweight in the World,’ so why not? Why not go after ‘God’ instead of going after ‘the peasants’ in the middleweight division? Sergio wasn’t going to be fighting any time soon and Kid Chocolate, he’s a friend of mine,” said Stevens.

“So anytime we compete, it would have to be for a title and there would have to be big money involved in that. But like I said, Golovkin, he’s supposed to be the so-called most feared, so why not dethrone the man who everybody idolizes like he’s a god?”

Although Golovkin (27-0, 24 knockouts) scored his 14th straight stoppage win against Matthew Macklin in June, Stevens (25-3, 18 KOs) questions why the native of Kazakhstan was not able to more swifly dispose of opponents such as Kassim Ouma and Gabriel Rosado, whom he vanquished in the 10th and seventh rounds, respectively.

Meanwhile, Stevens said that he can offer more versatility than Golvokin has seen thus far, whether it means displaying his finishing power, as he did during a first-round stoppage of Saul Roman on Aug. 3, or his boxing ability, like in his eight-round unanimous decision over Derrick Findley in April at The Garden.

To that end, Stevens has trained with talented junior middleweight Glen Tapia (20-0, 12 KOs), light heavyweight Yusaf Mack, and journeyman middleweight Ossie Duran, among others.

“My training has never been based on one-punch knockout power. That’s just something that I have, naturally. I’ve worked on a little more speed, and a little more agility. I’m already fast, but I’m trying to be faster,” said Stevens.

“I’m just working on our game plan, pressuring back, and being stronger than him. He doesn’t like pressure, as we’ve seen from the tapes that we’ve seen, and he does get hit. I just need to coordinate my A-game and do what I do best and stay focused.”

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]