Brooklyn-based Curtis “Showtime” Stevens believes that the question should not be whether or not he will be able to handle hammer-fisted WBA titleholder Gennady Golovkin at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 2, but “does my power concern him?” said Stevens during a recent training session, according to quotes provided by his promoter, Main Events.

“I feel great, strong as ever,” said Stevens (25-3, 18 knockouts), who contined to dismiss the hype around Golovkin (27-0, 24 KOs), whom he pursed rather than RING and WBC champion Sergio Martinez or WBO counterpart Peter Quillin. “I’m moving faster, I’m quicker than I expected. I’m just ready. I’m just ready to go in there and destroy him.”

Having called Golovkin “the so-called ‘Most-Feared Middleweight in the World,” and, the “God” among  “the peasants in the middleweight division,” Stevens has trained with talented junior middleweight Glen Tapia (20-0, 12 KOs), light heavyweight Yusaf Mack, and journeyman middleweight Ossie Duran, among others.

“I’m going in there to relax and I’m going in there to have fun. I’m going in there to do what I do. The question is, will he come out and fight me just as much as he do the other fighters, you know, when I come towards him? He may bounce around the ring, he may shadowbox. I’ve seen him fight. I gotta see what he comes out with,” said Stevens, who coming off a first-round stoppage of Saul Roman on Aug. 3 that was preceded by his eight-round unanimous decision over Derrick Findley in April at The Garden.

“I’m not gonna change my game plan. I’ll box just as much as I can pressure you. I’m coming in there ready to win. Is it going to be Curtis Stevens the puncher or Curtis Stevens the boxer? I don’t know. I may mix it up. I may get on his toes, I may razzle and dazzle his ass, cut him up. Or I may just go in there and take it to him, move a lot, just beat him down. But it all depends on him you know? I don’t know. He may come in there and want to fight. He may want to come in there and box. Because he knows I have power, he may be leery of that in his mind.”

Although Golovkin scored his 14th straight stoppage win against Matthew Macklin in June, Stevens has questioned why the native of Kazakhstan was not able to more swiftly dispose of opponents such as Kassim Ouma and Gabriel Rosado, whom he vanquished in the 10th and seventh rounds, respectively.

Golovkin’s trainer, Abel Sanchez, insists that Stevens will represent a “short night for Gennady,” adding, “I also expect that as soon as Curtis gets hit with the first jab, he’ll be more scared than Macklin was.”

“Abel says he’s gonna knock me out. I don’t know if Abel is just hyping him up or hyping just to talk in general,” said Stevens. “But Gennady only fights one way, and that’s to come forward. I believe he’s going to come meet me in the center of the ring. And if he does, it should be an early night.”

Photos by Larry Levanti