“Every jab, I touched him,” Golovkin said.

Abel Sanchez, Golovkin’s trainer, said his fighter’s jab was the “best I’ve seen it in a fight.”

“The jab was magnificent today, and he controlled the fight,” Sanchez said.

Lemieux’s best moments came in the third and sixth rounds, but over all, he could not sustain the offensive momentum necessary to keep up with Golovkin. He lost every round on all three official scorecards at the time of the stoppage.

“We prepared well for this fight, but I feel like I waited too long to take some shots tonight and that really hurt me,” Lemieux said.

Before Saturday night’s bout, Golovkin had last fought at the Garden on July 26, 2014, when he knocked out Daniel Geale of Australia in the third round. In an interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman after the fight, which was broadcast over the Garden’s public address system, Golovkin memorably invoked a phrase that has defined his climb up the boxing ranks.

“This is big drama show,” he said, smiling.

Thanks to the excitement generated by the Geale fight and three subsequent knockout wins, the big drama show is now taking place before a wider audience. Compared with a crowd of 8,572 at the Geale fight, Golovkin’s bout against Lemieux was announced as a sellout.