Golovkin could face Tureano Johnson next

By Boxing News - 06/26/2015 - Comments

golovkin8By Allan Fox: IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) finds himself in a really tough situation right now as far as his next opponent goes. He was waiting out the results of the David Lemieux vs. Hassan N’Dam fight last Saturday night in hopes of getting a unification fight against the winner.

However, now that Lemieux has won the fight his trainer Oscar De La Hoya is insisting that he’ll be defending his newly won IBF middleweight title against his mandatory next, even though the IBF reportedly told Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler that Lemieux can face Golovkin next rather than his mandatory. But De La Hoya appears to prefer Lemieux facing his mandatory rather than Golovkin.

#3 WBC Tureano Johnson (18-1, 13 KOs) may wind up being the guy that Golovkin faces next if he wants to get in a quick fight. That fight makes the most sense because it’s one that can be made fairly quickly by Loeffler.

“I am going to guess a guy like Tureano Johnson will get a shot,” Rafael said via ESPN.com. “At least if he does it will be exciting because he will come to fight.”
Tureano Johnson has won his last four fights since being stopped in the 4th round last year in April by Curtis Stevens. Johnson puts a lot of pressure on his opponents, and he’d push Golovkin for as long as it lasted.

WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee is facing his mandatory Billy Joe Saunders next. WBC belt hold Miguel Cotto has decided not to fight his mandatory, which is in this case Golovkin. Cotto instead is looking to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez next.

“Interesting that David Lemieux and Andy Lee both want to do their middleweight mandatories, but Cotto doesn’t #GGG,” Loeffler said on his twitter.

Golovkin was also hoping to fight former IBF/WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch, but it doesn’t look promising that Froch will take the fight. He’s not speaking right now, and his promoter Eddie Hearn is saying that he thinks Froch will be retiring soon rather than taking the fight with Golovkin.

Dan Rafael of ESPN said there are rumors of 50-year-old Bernard Hopkins being a possible candidate for Golovkin, but he doubts that fight will happen. Hopkins fights at light heavyweight, and he’d have to drop weight to get down to 168 in order to fight Golovkin.

Welterweight contender Tim Bradley has been speaking a lot about wanting to fight Golovkin. Even Bradley’s promoter Bob Arum spoke up today saying that he’s interested in matching Bradley against Golovkin. However, Rafael doubts the fight will take place. If Bradley beats Jessie Vargas this Saturday night to win the interim WBO welterweight title, he may choose to play it safe and focus on that belt rather than risking a serious beat down against Golovkin.



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