By Dan Ambrose: Gennady Golovkin’s management is in the process of moving his May 5th fight from Las Vegas to the StubHub Center in Carson, California, according to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times. In the past, Golovkin brought in a huge crowd for his fight against Marco Antonio Rubio in 2014 at the StubHub Center.
This is a move to take advantage of Golovkin’s huge popularity in the Lo Angeles area where he lives. Now that Saul Canelo Alvarez has pulled out of the May 5th fight with GGG, it’s more important than ever for the venue to be moved to where the most boxing fans will come and see Triple G fight. Golovkin is expected to take on a fighter without a huge fan base. Fringe contender Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan is the leading option for Golovkin.
With Golovkin’s May 5th fight being moved to the StubHub Center, it’s quite possible that 21-year-old Jaime Munguia (28-0, 24 KOs) could be back in the picture. The Nevada State Athletic Commission turned down Team Golovkin’s request to use the inexperienced Munguia as his opponent. Munguia was offered $750,000 to fight Golovkin on Cinco de Mayo on HBO PPV, according to Lance Pugmire.
Now that GGG’s fight is being moved to Carson, it’s quite possible that Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler will try and get the California State Athletic Commission to approve Munguia as his opponent. The reason why Munguia is the ideal opponent for Golovkin is because he’s fighting on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo, and a lot of Mexican boxing fans will purchase the fight if GGG is fighting someone from Mexico.
The other reason why Munguia is a good option for Golovkin is because he has no experience, and limited talent, so he’s someone that won’t be a threat to beating GGG. If Golovkin fights a good contender like Sergiy Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs), Jermall Charlo, Daniel Jacobs or Demetrius Andrade, he could possibly get beaten. It’s very likely that Team Golovkin will now try and get the California Commission to give the green light to Munguia as the opponent.
If the Commission says no, it’ll be interesting to see if Team Golovkin tries moving the fight to Texas or New York to see if one of those State Commissions will agree to let him fight Munguia. That’s the beauty about the U.S. If one state commission doesn’t sanction a mismatch for a fighter, then the fight can be shopped to a different state Commission.
Golovkin’s May 5th fight was talked about moving from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to the MGM Grand Garden.
The Mexican star Canelo Alvarez pulled out of the fight with GGG a week ago, making it necessary for his promoter Tom Loeffler to look for a replacement opponent. Unfortunately, the names that have been mentioned, Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan (27-2, 19 KOs) and Jaime Munguia, have drawn a lot of criticism from the boxing public, who don’t like the idea of paying to see Golovkin fight below par opposition. The fans wanted to see Canelo and Golovkin fight each other again, but that can’t happen due to the Mexican star’s two positive tests for the banned substance clenbuterol.
Golovkin has been training to face Canelo, so the fans want him to fight the best available option. O’Sullivan is not the best option. Demetrius Andrade and Sergiy Derevyanchenko both are available to fight Golovkin, but there hasn’t been interest on Golovkin’s team’s part to use either of those guys as the replacement opponent. The rematch between Canelo and Golovkin will take place in the future, but not likely until September of this year. That’ll depend on whether the Nevada State Athletic Commission gives Canelo a 6-month ban.
If Golovkin faces the Golden Boy promoted O’Sullivan, it would likely make the promotional company happy. Golden Boy Promotions also promotes Canelo, so there would be at least one of their fighters in their stable still getting the fight with GGG. According to Lance Pugmire, if Golovkin faces O’Sullivan, Golden Boy featherweight prospect Ryan Garcia would be a possible undercard opponent. Garcia is still a prospect, so he probably wouldn’t be placed in the co-feature bout.
That position will almost surely be filled by former four division world champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, who has lost his last two fights and is badly in need of a win at this point. Hernan ‘Tyson’ Marquez is a name that was being mentioned as a possible opponent for Chocolatito, but the fight doesn’t look like it’s going to happen though. It doesn’t matter. Marquez would have no chance against Gonzalez. Whoever is brought in to face Gonzalez, they’ll be over their head.
Golovkin vs. Derevyanchenko would be a good fight for the boxing public. Derevyanchenko, 32, is Golovkin’s International Boxing Federation mandatory challenger. Golovkin is going to have to face him sooner or later anyway. It might as well be now on May 5th. It’ll look bad if Golovkin steers around Derevyanchenko, as it’ll give the perception that he’s ducking the Ukrainian fighter.
As long as Canelo is only given a 6 month suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission on April 18th, then the rematch with Golovkin should take place in September on the Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend.
Golovkin’s management is expected to name the opponent for his May 5th fight next week. There are is less than 1 month to go before the fight date, so they need to move quickly to select the opponent.
It won’t be surprising if the move to the StubHub is simply a way for Team Golovkin to get their desired opponent Munguia approved by the California Commission. It would be disappointing for the boxing fans to see Golovkin in a fight on HBO PPV against an over-matched 21-year-old kid like Munguia. This fighter would be over-matched against most of the fighters in the middleweight division. Having Golovkin fight Munguia on PPV is going to upset a lot of fans, especially if the fight isn’t competitive. The California Commission will look bad in the eyes of some of the fans if they approve Munguia and he ends up getting knocked out badly by Golovkin.