By Dan Ambrose: WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KO’s) is hoping he can get a shot at the winner of the June 7th fight between WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez vs. Miguel Cotto. Golovkin matches up well with either of these guys, and it would give Golovkin his first big name of his career.
Golovkin thought he was close to getting a fight against former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, but the negotiations between the two fighters’ teams fell apart recently leaving Golovkin staring at a fight against either Daniel Geale, who was beaten last year by Darren Barker, or Jarrod Fletcher. Neither option is particularly interesting.
“It’s very interesting [Cotto vs. Martinez] to me,” Golovkin said to ESPN’s Dan Rafael. “Sergio is bigger, he is stronger. Miguel is small, too small for Sergio. Of course, I want to fight the person who will win the fight. It would be very big. I want to fight the winner.”
It would be a big fight between Golovkin and the winner of the Cotto-Martinez fight. It would be the biggest fight in the middleweight division right now. However, I don’t think either of these guys will want to mix it up with a puncher like Golovkin. I would be very surprised if either of them agreed to fight Golovkin. I’d say the chances of the winner of the Cotto vs. Martinez fighting Golovkin are less than 5%.
Cotto has already talked about not defending the WBC middleweight title if he wins it. He just wanted to win the belt in order to capture a 4th division world title. Cotto is expected to move down to the junior middleweight division and fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez win or lose in his fight against Sergio Martinez. Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya is eager to match Canelo and Cotto up. But as far as Golovkin goes, he’s not likely to even be given a consideration by Sergio and Cotto. He’s too good.
About the best Golovkin can hope for is that the WBA will let him fight Geale instead of the guy that they picked out for him to fight Jarrod Fletcher. Geale is known by hardcore boxing fans in the U.S, and he’s got a lot of fans in Australia. He looked pretty bad in getting beaten by Barker last year, but Golovkin’s team and HBO obviously would be hoping that boxing fans didn’t see that fight or that they had forgotten about it.
Geale is probably a step down from Curtis Stevens for Golovkin, but there’s just no one for him to fight in the middleweight division. Felix Sturm won’t fight him, and likely neither will Sergio Martinez. Peter Quillin fights on Showtime, so that keeps a fight between him and Golovkin from being made because Golovkin fights on HBO.
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