Gennady Golovkin vs. Dominic Wade a done deal for 4/23 on HBO

By Boxing News - 02/10/2016 - Comments

golovkin44By Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) is set to go to defend his IBF title against mandatory challenger Dominic Wade (18-0, 12 KOs) on April 23 on HBO Championship Boxing from the Forum, in Inglewood, California.

Granted, it’s not a great fight or even a good fight. It’s arguably a big step down from Golovkin’s last opponent David Lemieux and even a step down from his fight against Willie Monroe Jr. Golovkin has no choice in the matter though, because the International Boxing Federation came up with their oddball ratings of putting the 25-year-old Wade at No.3, and he got the position after #1 IBF Tureano Johnson suffered a shoulder injury training and couldn’t take the fight with Golovkin.

The IBF would have been better off ranking the following contenders above Wade: Hassan N’Dam, Ryota Murata, Eamonn O’Kane, Sergiy Derevyanchenko, and Arif Magomedov.

Golovkin has no choice in the matter. Either he takes the uninteresting mismatch against Dominic Wade or he gets stripped of his IBF title. Since Golovkin is into capturing all the titles in the middleweight division, he’s stuck having to defend his IBF title against a guy that arguably doesn’t have the talent to be fighting him in Wade. Golovkin would be so much better off if he forgot about holding on to the worthless titles and instead looked to get the best fights possible. If Golovkin did that, he wouldn’t have to waste time fighting over-matched opposition like Wade.

“I’m happy to fight again at the Forum in front of my fans and friends in Los Angeles. Dominic Wade is a very hungry and skilled middleweight who is undefeated and will be another big test for me,” said Golovkin. “Thanks to my Coach Abel Sanchez, my promoter Tom Loeffler, my team, HBO and the Forum for another opportunity to defend my middleweight titles.”

Golovkin needs to get Wade out of the way so that he has the chance to fight for the WBC middleweight title against belt holder Saul “Canelo” Alvarez later this year. Golovkin may not have to fight for the title if Canelo chooses not to fight him. That’s always a possibility. I can see a situation where Canelo either vacates the WBC title or is stripped of it by the World Boxing Council for failing to defend it against Golovkin.

It’s my guess that Canelo will try and force a catch-weight of 155lbs on Golovkin. When that catch-weight is refused by Golovkin and his team, Canelo will need to vacate, give in and fight him at the full weight of 160lbs, or look to exert pressure on the WBC to allow him to force all of his challengers to fight him at catch-weights.

“I’m poised and ready to take on the challenge. I thank my Manager Jerry Vines, #TeamWade and all of my trainers, opponents and supporters for preparing me for this moment,” Wade said.

Wade appeared to lose his last fight against Sam Soliman last year in winning a controversial 10 round split decision. A lot of fans thought Wade lost that fight, which is why he’s such a poor opponent for Golovkin. It’s not so much the outcome of the Soliman fight, but rather how terrible Wade looked the entire 10 round contest.

Fighters lose by controversial decisions all the time. It’s part of the sport. But when you look as poor as Wade did for the ENTIRE fight, it just tells you that this guy doesn’t a world title fight, and he’s just going to be turned into another KO for Golovkin.



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