By Jason Kim: WBA Gennady Golovkin (24-0, 21 KO’s) breezed to an easy 5th round TKO win last Saturday night against 27-year-old challenger Grzegorz Proksa (28-2, 21 KO’s) at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York. Showing amazing power with his short accurate shots to the head and body, Golovkin was able to knock Proksa down three times in the fight. He had HBO analysts Max Kellerman and Roy Jones Jr. excited with his talent.

After the fight, Kellerman said “If Andre Ward beats Chad Dawson, you’d fight him?” Golovkin responded immediately, saying “Yeah, why not? Andre Ward is a good man. I beat Andre Dirrell, you know? I’m ready now.”

Golokin may need to fight Ward if he can’t get the winner of the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs. Sergio Martinez fight to face him next, and that’s a very real possibility. Golovkin wants the winner of the Chavez Jr-Martinez fight, but do they want to fight him? Golovkin’s flexibility in terms of being willing to fight in other weight classes will definitely help him land fights. Ward vs. Golovkin would be an excellent fight.

Ward, 6’0″, would have the height, reach and speed advantage over Golovkin but he’d still have a lot of problems because Ward likes to fight most of the time on the inside, and that’s where Golovkin is most dangerous. Ward has taken advantage of fighters recently that didn’t know how to fight in close such as Carl Froch, Allan Green and Arthur Abraham, but it would be a whole different situation if he were to fight Golovkin. Ward would have to figure out another way of winning because he wouldn’t be able to mug Golovkin on the inside, and he wouldn’t be the bigger puncher in that fight.

Golokin’s team obviously prefers that they get the winner of the Chavez Jr. vs. Martinez fight, but if that fight doesn’t happen, Golovkin may need to move up in weight to face the Ward-Dawson winner just to get an interesting fight.

Golovkin is also open to fighting at junior middleweight, and someone like WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez comes to mind. However, Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for Alvarez, aren’t about to put him in with someone that can actually beat him like Golovkin. Alvarez is still being matched against smaller and older guys. Golden Boy won’t likely want to risk having Alvarez knocked out or badly beaten by the bigger punching Golovkin. If Golovkin is going to land a fight at junior middleweight, it would have to be someone like Austin Trout or Erislandy Lara.