By Dan Ambrose: WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez says Golovkin will be fighting in October against a soon to be announced opponent in the next two weeks. Tom Loeffler, the promoter for Golovkin, is currently negotiating with Golovkin’s potential opponent for the October fight.
Sanchez didn’t drop any hints about who the fighter could be, but Golden Boy Promotions are reportedly in talks with Loeffler about a unification fight between their fighter IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux and Golovkin. It would be interesting if Lemieux winds up being the opponent for Golovkin in October on HBO. Golovkin-Lemieux would be a big fight, but probably not big enough for HBO pay-per-view.
“I believe they’re talking about October [for Golovkin’s next fight]. We don’t have an opponent yet,” Sanchez said via Moxie Empire. “Tom Loeffler and the Herman brothers, his managers, are negotiating this right now. They hope to announce that in the next couple of weeks,” Sanchez said.
Even if it doesn’t turn out to be Lemieux, it’ll be good to have Golovkin back in the ring, period. He can’t sit and wait forever for a big fight to fall into his lap because there aren’t big fights out there for him. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has already said he doesn’t plan on fighting Golovkin, and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto are on course to face each other in November.
Golovkin can’t sit around and wait for the smoke to clear for that one because it would mean him staying inactive for the remainder of the year. WBO champion Andy Lee is facing BJ Saunders next on September 19th in Ireland. Daniel Jacobs fights on Showtime, so that’s not a possibility for Golovkin, who fights on HBO. Erislandy Lara, the WBA junior middleweight champion, fights on Showtime as well. It’s also unclear how much interest there would be from the casual boxing fans for a Golovkin-Lara fight. It might not be worth the money to put the fight together in the first place.
“GGG-Lemieux is an actual fight in talks. GGG-Ward is a fight many of us want to see but it is not going to happen this year,” Dan Rafael said on his boxing chat on Friday at ESPN.com. “Weight aside, the reality is that right now there is simply not enough money to make it worthwhile for either guy right now.”
Andre Ward is a fight for Golovkin to take in the future, and that’s only if Ward agrees to the catch-weight of 164 for the fight, and whatever purse split that Loeffler and Golovkin offer him. At this point, Golovkin and Ward appear to be going in different directions with their careers. Golovkin is fighting a lot, knocking out everyone put in front of him, and bringing in good ratings. Ward has only had one fight in the past two years, and it’ll be surprising if he is able to fight more than once per years. If Ward continues to be mostly inactive, Golovkin is going to surge way ahead of him in terms of popularity, and that’s going to make it all but impossible for the two fighters to put a fight together between them. Ward could remain unbeaten, and yet still wind up being on the short end of the stick when it comes to negotiating a fight.
“Look at me, I’m not big, I’m not fat. My couple of last fights – I was 158, 159. It’s possible for me (to go down to fight him),” Golovkin said via ESPN’s Sports Nation. “I would go to 154 just for Floyd. I understand that this is biggest fight in the world. This would show who is who, the best fighter in the world.”
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