A Beast from the East has arrived.

Gennady Golovkin dismantled Grzegorz Proksa on Saturday in a manner that has drawn comparisons to the sport’s greatest punchers, creating a palpable buzz in the process. The fans love a boxer with crushing power.

Some already have anointed Golovkin the best middleweight in the world despite the presence of RING Champion Sergio Martinez and the likes of Daniel Geale, Felix Sturm and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. In our current RING poll, 68.7 percent say that Martinez remains the top 160-pounder but Golovkin is second at 14.2 percent. And that’s after only one high-profile victory.

Of course, we mustn’t get carried away. Golovkin entered the fight against Proksa, his first in the United States, as THE RING’s No. 8-rated middleweight. He moves up to No. 4 – behind only Martinez, Geale, Sturm and Chavez – after his victory Saturday in Verona, N.Y.

We have a feeling he won’t stop there.

RING RATINGS UPDATE

Cruiserweight: The Editorial Board decided to wait until after Steve Cunningham‘s heavyweight debut against Jason Gavern on Saturday to remove him from the 200-pound ratings.

Cunningham (No. 3 at cruiserweight last week) seems to have made permanent move but we decided it wouldn’t hurt to wait one more week to see how he feels and hear what he has to say after the fight.

Middleweight: Geale (No. 2 last week) outworked Sturm (No. 1 last week) to win a split decision in a close fight Saturday in Germany. Thus, they flop positions.

A more-difficult question was what to do about Proksa (No. 9 last week), who was annihilated and is 2-2 in his last four fights.

We considered dropping him from the ratings but decided only to drop him to No. 10 in part because he had the guts to step into the ring with a monster while others were reluctant to do so. Plus, there were no obvious choices to replace him in a thin division.

Junior bantamweight: Tepparith Singwancha (No. 2 last week) outpointed Nobuo Nashiro (No. 7 last week) on Saturday in Japan.

Singwancha stays put. Nashiro, who has lost four consecutive title fights, barely hangs on at No. 10.

Flyweight: Moruti Mthalane (No. 4 last week) moves up one notch after stopping unrated Ricardo Nunez in eight rounds Saturday in Panama.

Strawweight: Unrated Mario Rodriguez stopped Nkosinathi Joyi (No. 2 last week) in seven rounds in a stunning upset Saturday in Rodriguez’s native Mexico. Rodrgiuez enters the ratings at No. 6 while Joyi drops to No. 7.

Rodriguez is only 15-6-4 (11 knockouts) but has looked impressive over the past year, winning five consecutive fights (four by KO). That includes victories over Gilberto Keb Baas and now the South African Joyi.

UP NEXT

Rated fighters in action this coming weekend (with current ratings)

All bouts on Saturday:

Heavyweight: Vitali Klitschko (No. 1) vs. Manuel Charr; Tomasz Adamek (No. 3) vs. Travis Walker; Steve Cunningham (No. 3 cruiserweight) vs. Jason Gavern

Super middleweight: Andre Ward (C) vs. Chad Dawson (light heavyweight champion)

Junior welterweight: Lucas Matthysse (No. 1) vs. Ajose Olusegun (No. 9)

Lightweight: Antonio DeMarco (No. 1) vs. John Molina (No. 6)

Pound for pound: Andre Ward (No. 5) vs. Chad Dawson (No. 10); Vitali Klitschko (No. 9) vs. Manuel Charr