By Allan Fox: After his easy win over Willie Monroe Jr. (19-2, 6 KOs) last Saturday night, IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) will be fighting two more times in 2015, according to his promoter Tom Loeffler.
Loeffler plans on having Golovkin fight in September and December. That means for Golovkin to fight in December, he’s going to have to avoid injuries in his September fight because there’s only three months between the two fight dates.
Golovkin’s September fight could take place in Europe, and his December fight in Las Vegas. If they put Golovkin’s next fight in Europe, then it suggests that he’ll be taking on a weaker opponent. He can’t go much lower than his last fight against Monroe because that wasn’t a competitive bout.
It was disturbing to learn from Golovkin that he carried Monroe from the 2nd round in order to get rounds in and make it more interesting for the boxing fans that were watching it live and on HBO. Golovkin was said to have carried his previous opponent Martin Murray to the 11th round before finally knocking him out.
Monroe didn’t look as good as Murray though because he didn’t have his size and toughness. Monroe ended up quitting on his feet in the 6th round after getting knocked down by Golovkin.
Boxing fans want to see Golovkin face better opposition but he’s not getting much help from the guys he wants to fight. There are only a handful of decent fighters in the middleweight division but none of them have shown much interest in fighting Golovkin yet. He wants to fight Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Andy Lee, Peter Quillin and Daniel Jacobs.
I count Canelo as a middleweight now because his last three fights has been at middleweight, and he rehydrates to the mid-170s for his fights. Canelo’s next fight will likely be at middleweight as well against Miguel Cotto.
If Golovkin is serious about wanting to fight two more times this year, then he’s going to need to focus on getting his September opponent out of there much quicker than he did with Monroe. It’s too risky for Golovkin to allow his fights to go six rounds or more because he could suffer a cut, and that would ruin his chances of fighting in December.
Loeffler needs to pick out an opponent with more offensive skills for Golovkin’s next fight because Monroe was far too weak to make it an interesting fight.
Comments are closed.