By Dan Ambrose: IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs), the fighter who many feel is the legitimate champion in the 160lb weight class, says he’s going to be sitting at ringside this Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, to see the match-up between WBC middleweight belt holder Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) and Daniel Geale 31-3, 16 KOs).
Golovkin says he’s looking forward to face the winner of the Cotto-Geale fight. However, Cotto has made it pretty clear that he could be facing Golden Boy Promotion’s flagship fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez next. Golovkin’s name hasn’t been one that Cotto has been mentioning a whole lot lately except when responding to questions from the media.
“I want to watch this fight in person and look forward to fighting the winner to show who the real WBC middleweight champion is,” said Golovkin. “A unification fight with the winner is very important to me.”
You’ve got to like Golovkin’s self-confidence in thinking he’ll get the fight against the winner of the Cotto vs. Geale fight. It’s just too bad that his chances of getting a fight against the winner is very small. If Geale beats Cotto, he’ll no doubt facing Cotto in a rematch.
I don’t think Cotto would be able to walk away from a loss to Geale to move on and face Canelo. To be sure, Cotto has walked away from defeats to Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao and Austin Trout without avenging his losses, but in this case I don’t think Cotto could just walk away from the defeat without attempting to avenge it.
The World Boxing Council is going to give Cotto permission to face Canelo next, even though Cotto’s mandatory defense against Golovkin will be officially due after the Geale fight. But Cotto said that he’s not going to be forced to defend his WBC title against the guys that the WBC wants him to face. He says he’ll fight who he wants to.
“If the WBC is the one to determine who they think I should face then I’ll simply save myself the 3% and just fight and do what I want,” Cotto said to Fighthype. “I will do what I have to do to benefit my career and my family.”
It sounds like Cotto has decided to do what he pleases as the WBC 160lb belt holder. If he decides he wants to fight Golokvin in the future, then that might be the only way the bout against Golovkin takes place. Cotto has made it very clear that he’s not going to be pressured by the WBC to fight their designated mandatory challengers, which at this time is Golovkin.
It’s nice that Golovkin is attending this Saturday’s Cotto-Geale fight because it will give him an opportunity to get some camera coverage by HBO, but I don’t think that’s going to increase his chances of getting a shot at Cotto. If the WBC chooses to show some backbone and strip Cotto of his WBC title, then Golovkin can fight for the vacant WBC belt, but it obviously won’t be against Cotto.
Comments are closed.