(Photo credit: Al Hart/HBO) By DA: Tom Loeffler of K2 promotions is interested in getting his fighter WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) back in the ring as soon as possible after his fight against England’s Martin Murray is taken care of this Saturday night on February 21st in Monte Carlo.
That’s assuming everything goes well for Golovkin in this fight and he adds another knockout victim or perhaps an unlikely unanimous decision. The target month for Golovkin’s next fight is May of this year, against whom is the question.
There’s always a unification match against the winner of the April 11th fight between Andy Lee and Peter Quillin or Hassan N’Dam vs. David Lemeiux, but I’m sure Golovkin would rather get the big money fight against WBC/lineal champ Miguel Cotto. But Cotto is expected to exercise his voluntary defense granted by the WBC before being (if necessary) forced to fight his mandatory challenger in Golovkin.
Cotto is rumored to also want a return in May as well, so a Golovkin fight wouldn’t be unrealistic. However, it’s not likely Cotto fights Golovkin next, as he’s expected to make his first defense against former welterweight title holder Timothy Bradley.
Golovkin has many times expressed his interest in unifying all the middleweight titles and become undisputed champion at 160, but getting other title holders to fight him has been a problem for the Kazakh fighter. He’s also been interested in fighting Saul “Canelo” Alvarez sometime in the future in a big PPV fight.
Golovkin praised the Mexican superstar and said eventually he’d like a fight against him and that he respects the kid a lot. Golovkin and Canelo have done sparring before and Golovkin gave Alvarez props by saying “He’s the best I’ve sparred with” and noted he’s got “very heavy hands” in a Q & A with HBO a few years ago. But the real question is if Golovkin does return later this year in May whom will it be against?
Assuming Andy Lee beats Quillin, that’d be a very makeable fight due to Lee’s promoter Lou Dibella having a good relationship with HBO. If Quillin wins, I can’t see Quillin’s advisor Al Haymon allowing him to take the fight against Golovkin, and due to boxing politics the fight would be difficult to make.
Golovkin is exclusively signed to HBO and can’t fight on any other networks and Quillin whose under Haymon doesn’t work with HBO since 2013. As for the N’dam and Lemeiux winner, either guy wouldn’t be difficult to get a fight with Golovkin, so hopefully we can see Golovkin in a unification bout this May. But then again there’s always a chance he could be moved to an even later date due to so many fighters wanting to fight in May. We’ll have to see.
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