Gennady Golovkin is the unified middleweight champion again after stopping Ryota Murata in nine rounds in Saitama in Japan.

Golovkin recovered from a slow start to stop Murata in his tracks with a counter right hand and the win puts ‘Triple G’ in pole position to fight Alvarez in a trilogy fight later this year.

Alvarez and Golovkin are yet to sign a deal for their highly anticipated third fight and the Mexican is due to move up to light-heavyweight to challenge WBA (Super) champion Dmitry Bivol on 7 May.

Murata, who won gold at the London 2012 Olympics, had success in the early rounds with some punishing body shots that appeared to knock the wind out of Golovkin.

But he remained patient, falling back on his famously stiff jab, and was able to snap back the head of Murata on a few occasions.

Murata was unable to build on his success to the body, allowing Golovkin to eventually take over in round five, when he was finally able to put combinations together.

A hard right hand from Golovkin in round six sent Murata’s mouthpiece flying, although the Japanese fighter was able to stay on his feet.

Golovkin continued to try and punch through Murata’s guard and was now in full flow, showing flashes of the fighter who had steamrollered most of his opponents down the years.

He stunned Murata in round nine, backing him on to the ropes before his visibly hurt opponent decided to push forward in a desperate attempt to turn the tide.

Bu Golovkin was able to read Murata’s advances, step back and fire off a devastating right counter that finally put Murata down.

The towel from Murata’s corner came in, giving Golovkin the 42nd win of his illustrious career.

“Murata is a true warrior who fought to the very end,” Golovkin said.

“He is an Olympic champion, a middleweight champion, and despite what took place in front of his fans, we are extremely happy to have organised this event in Japan.”