Gennady Golovkin vs. Andy Lee in the works for April 26th

By Boxing News - 02/05/2014 - Comments

lee343By Scott Gilfoid: It looks like WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KO’s) will be facing #11 WBA. #11 WBO Andy Lee (31-2, 22 KO’s) on April 26th at Madison Square Garden in New York. James Kirkland is out of the picture for Golovkin for that date, according to Dan Rafael. He’s reporting that Kirkland’s camp has said no to the Golovkin fight, although he could fight on the undercard against a still to be determined opponent.

As for former IBF middleweight champion Daniel Geale, he’s said no to the fight because the April 26th date conflicts with another sports program that will be televised on the same night in Australia. Geale wants the fight to be shown in Australia. However, that can’t happen unless Golovkin changes the date for his next fight, and that obviously isn’t going to happen, not for a less than popular fighter like Geale. He may be known in Australia, but in the U.S., fans pretty much just know Geale as the guy that got beat by Darren Barker.

With Kirkland and Geale now out of the picture for Golokvin’s next fight that leaves just the 29-year-old Andy Lee. I find it hard to believe that HBO would say yes to televising a fight between Golovkin and Lee, because Lee has fought no one of substance since facing former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in June of 2012 and getting stopped in the 7th round. Lee has been brought back very, very slowly from that defeat, as you can see with the three opponents – Anthony Fitzgerald, Darryl Cunningham and Ferenc Hafner – that he’s fought since that loss.

It wouldn’t be so bad for Lee to fight for another world title if he had fought someone in between that had some talent so that boxing fans would know that he’s come back from the stoppage loss, and would make a decent fight of it against Golovkin. But Lee hasn’t done that, and that’s why I see this as a horrible fight and definitely every bit as bad as Golovkin’s recent 7th round stoppage loss over Osumanu Adama last Saturday night. When Golovkin took that fight with Adama, my understanding is that Golovkin would face a quality opponent in his next fight on HBO. But I don’t see Lee as a quality opponent for Golovkin, and I certainly don’t see this as a step up from Adama. If anything, Lee is a slight step downwards from him due to his poor stamina, bad chin, and his tendency to mix it up too much.

Rafael sees Lee as someone that will help increase ticket sales for the fight due to a large population of Irish fans that might want to see Lee fight Golovkin. That’s all well and good, but for the fans that are watching on HBO, they want to see a competitive fight, and Lee is clearly not going to make it competitive. He’s probably going to get knocked out quickly, and fans will be harping on Golovkin for taking on yet another soft opponent instead of someone with some quality that can extend him.



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