By Eric Baldwin: Middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s WBC mandatory challenger is going to be decided with a 4-man tournament held by the World Boxing Council. This is something the WBC has decided to do during their convention this week. The 4-fighters that will face each other in the tournament are as follows: David Lemieux, Jorge Sebastian Heiland, Ievgen Khytrov and Curtis Stevens. None of these fighters are great choices for Golovkin. Jermall Charlo needs to move up to 160 to give Golovkin a good opponent in near future.
The WBC tournament wouldn’t figure to be a great deal for Heiland, who has been ranked #1 by the WBC for quite some time without getting a title shot. For Heiland to have to fight for the mandatory sport, it creates a hoop to have to jump through.
The four fighters in the tournament may change, as some of them could choose not to fight in the tournament. For some of them, it would be in their best interest to fight in the tournament if they want to get a crack at Golovkin, because they might not get a title shot in the near future otherwise.
Stevens is ranked #8 by the WBC, and he could wait ages for another title shot without him taking part in the WBC’s tournament and potentially winning it. Lemieux is in a better position to eventually get another title shot. I would be surprised if he took part in the WBC’s tournament. It’s probably not a good idea for Lemieux to fight Golovkin again after getting knocked out by him in the 8th round in October 2015 in their fight on HBO pay-per-view.
A four man tournament for middleweight mandatory is being planned,” said Pugmire for Golovkin’s WBC mandatory. “Heiland’s manager upset over the tournament assignment. ‘Please trust the WBC. This decision is best for your kid,’ @wbc,oro tells Heiland manager. The top 4 middleweights in that tournament could change, but for now they are Heiland, Levgen Khytrov, Curtis Stevens, David Lemieux.”
Just how long the tournament will take to decide Golovkin’s WBC mandatory is the big question. Golovkin doesn’t figure to be fighting his WBC mandatory in 2017, because he’s expected to defend in March against WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs. The World Boxing Association ordered the Golovkin-Jacobs fight. There’s a purse bid that will be taking next week for that fight. Golovkin is also expected to fight Saul Canelo Alvarez in September of next year. Those two fights could take up a better portion of 2017 for Triple G. Whoever wins the WBC tournament could find themselves waiting until 2018 before they get their title shot.
#3 WBC Lemieux (36-3, 32 KOs) is expected to face Mexican star Saul Canelo Alvarez in either February or May 2017. Lemieux isn’t likely going to take part in any tournament held by the WBC. Even if Lemieux wasn’t fighting Canelo in 2017, the idea of him having to take part in a tournament to get a fight against Golovkin is pretty much ridiculous. Lemieux is fighter in demand and won’t need to fight in a tournament to get a crack at a title. Lemieux would have a very good chance of winning the tournament if he took part in it.
#8 WBC Curtis Stevens (29-5, 21 KOs) was stopped in the 8th round by Golovkin three years ago in 2013. Since then, Stevens has won four out of his last five fights. He lost to Hassan N’Dam by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2014. However, since that time, Stevens has won his last two fights against James De La Rosa and Patrick Teixeira.
#1 WBC Heiland (28-4-2, 15 KOs) has been fighting largely obscure opposition since his win over Matthew Macklin in 2014. Heiland stopped Macklin in the 10th round. It’s unclear what Heiland’s management has been waiting for in terms of putting him in with good opposition. They’ve matched him against mostly little known fighters. In Heiland’s last three fights, he’s beaten Angel Hernandez (17-18-1), Martin Fidel Rios (17-8-3) and Claudio Ariel Abalos (29-13-3).
It’s going to be interesting to see how long the WBC will allow Golovkin to wait before he must fight the winner of the WBC’s 4-man tournament. If they wait too long, Golovkin could lose his WBC title. Golovkin’s fight next year against Canelo is thought to be a 50-50 affair by a lot of boxing fans. Additionally, Golovkin has to get past Daniel Jacobs in early 2017, and that’s a fight that he could well lose if Jacobs can jump on him immediately. The longer the fight goes the better the chance that Golovkin will wear Jacobs down. But in the early going, Golovkin will have a very good chance of scoring a knockout against Jacobs.
In other news, the WBC says that the winner of the James DeGale vs. Badou Jack fight must make a mandatory defense against #1 WBC Callum Smith. The negotiations must start by January 16. It’s not surprise that the winner of DeGale vs. Jack must fight Smith. It’s been known that they would have to fight him next for a long time now. DeGale wants that fight, beause it would play out big in the UK.
The winner of the February 24 fight between Lucian Bute and Eleider Alvarexz to be the manatory for WBC 175lb champion Adonis Stevenson. According to Pugmire, Carl Moretti of Top Rank is talking about wanting their fighter Oleksandr Gvozdyk to be the fighter that becomes Stevenson’s mandatory. Gvozdyk is ranked #4 by the WBC. Alvarez is ranked #1 by the WBC. Bute is ranked in the super middleweight. It makes sense for the winner of the Alvarez vs. Bute to be Stevenson’s mandatory.