By Allan Fox: Boxing fans only have to wait another 22 more days for the October 17th fight between IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) and IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs) for their fight on HBO pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden in New York.

Golovkin is ready to take make his first pay-per-view fight to try and become a PPV star on his own. This is a real test for the Kazakhstan star both in the ring and with his ability to attract fans to purchase his fight on PPV.

If Golovkin can bring in a lot of PPV buys from this fight, it’ll make things a lot easier to get the bigger names in the sport to fight him.

Lemieux, 26, feels he’s going to raid on Golovkin’s parade on October 17th, because he feels that he’s made to order for him with the way he likes to slug it out with his opponents.

22 days! #GolovkinLemieux pic.twitter.com/uxVKoUCYES

— Gennady Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) September 25, 2015

Lemieux has been facing reluctant opponents his entire pro career. He’s had to chase them down and knock them out with his big left hooks. But for this fight, Lemieux won’t have to worry about chasing Golovkin down because he’s likely going to be right in front of him looking to slug it out for as long as it lasts.

Lemieux needs to make sure that he can line Golovkin up in his sights in order to nail him with his big left hook. Golovkin likes to lean away from shots thrown at him, and he’s not going to make it easy on Lemieux unless he pushes forward to crowd him.

It’s hard to know how Golovkin will do against a big puncher like Lemieux because his opposition has been almost identical to Lemieux’s. Golovkin has not been fighting guys with the kind of punching power that Lemieux has going for him, and that’s what’s going to make it interesting.

For all we know, Golovkin could call apart in the 1st round when Lemieux starts bombing him with his big left hooks and right hands to the head. Golovkin hasn’t had his chin seriously tested during his career, and he might not do well getting hit by a young guy with the kind of devastating punching power that Lemieux has going for him.

Lemieux’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya believes that he’s got a future star in Lemieux. This could be Lemieux’s coming out party if he goes out that and puts Golovkin away in the early rounds. It would make a star out of Lemieux and it definitely put him in line to face the winner of the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto fight on November 21st.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see both of those fighters immediately make it known that they want to fight Lemieux next win or lose. They’ll definitely be licking their chops if Lemieux defeats Golovkin, because they both like to fight opponents like Lemieux.

If Lemieux loses to Golovkin, then De La Hoya will need to rebuild him with another series of tomato cans to help bring him back to where he is now. Lemieux has been facing weak opposition for the most part since his back to back losses to Joachim Alcine and Marcos Antonio Rubio in 2011. Lemieux finally fought a good opponent in his last fight when he beat Hassan N’Dam by a 12 round unanimous decision.

Golovkin is in a different situation. If he beats Lemieux, he doesn’t necessarily get the big fights unless he can bring in a lot of PPV buys. If not, then it probably won’t matter at all that he defeated Lemieux. He could destroy Lemieux and look specular and still not get the big names to fight him. It all comes down to how many PPV buys he gets. It will likely hurt Golovkin if he obliterates Lemieux in the first few rounds, because he’ll scare of Canelo, Cotto, Daniel Jacobs, Andy Lee and Peter Quillin.

Those fighters won’t want to mess up their careers facing a knockout artist like Golovkin if he blows through Lemieux like a hot knife through butter. Golovkin is in a really bad situation with the Lemieux fight. If he loses the fight, then his career will take a huge hit. If he beats Lemieux with ease, he could wind up scaring everyone away in the same way that the super middleweights are afraid of Andre Ward. The only thing that will help Golovkin is if his fight with Lemieux brings in a huge number of buys. Without that, he’s kind of nowhere.