By Sean Jones: Former WBA middleweight champion Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam is now the potential opponent for Gennady Golovkin to fight his first bout of his new contract with DAZN on June 8 or 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York. June 8th is the date that they’re looking at for the fight, as they don’t want GGG’s fight to conflict with former heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury’s debut with ESPN for Top Rank Boxing on June 15.
The date and venue for Golovkin’s next fight still isn’t definitive, but that’s what they’re looking at, according to the LA Times.
N’Dam is a respectable choice for Golovkin to face, if this fight goes down. N’Dam is ranked #3 with the World Boxing Council at middleweight, and he’s coming off of a 12 round majority decision win over former five time world title challenger Martin Murray on December 22 in Manchester, England. The highly skilled N’Dam not only beat the always tough Murray (37-5-1, 17 KOs), but he did it in his home country of England. Murray is hard to beat when he’s fighting in the UK, but N’Dam pulled it off by out-boxing him.
N’Dam isn’t considered to be in the same league as GGG, Saul Canelo Alvarez, Daniel Jacobs, Demetrius Andrade and Jermall Charlo in terms of talent, but he’s the next rung down a very respectable opponent. One can argue that N’Dam is a better fighter than the guy that GGG’s management were looking to sign for his June 8 fight, Brandon Adams. GGG’s management were likely looking to sign Adams due to him being American, and slightly more well known among the U.S hardcore boxing fans than N’Dam. For knowledgeable fans that follow the sport, they’ll know that N’Dam has done a lot more with his pro and amateur career than the first two options for GGG’s June 8 fight, Brandon Adams and Kamil Szeremeta. Those guys aren’t former world champions or Olympians like N’Dam, who is a 2-time Olympian.
Officials from San Antonio’s Alamodome in Texas would like to stage Golovkin’s next fight in their stadium, which would be reconfigured to seat 38,000 fans. GGG wants the fight to take place at Madison Square Garden in New York, a venue he’s fought at five times in the past against Daniel Geale, David Lemieux, Daniel Jacobs, Curtis Stevens and Gabriel Rosado.
The management for GGG will be meeting with the New York State Athletic Commission this week on Wednesday to plan for Golovkin to fight at Madison Square Garden. If the June 8 date isn’t available, then Triple G’s management will move to the June 14 date for the DAZN fight.
Two-time ESPN Boxcinco tournament participant and winner of “The Contender” series 5, Brandon Adams was offered the fight with Golovkin, but he chose to face WBC interim middleweight champion Jermall Charlo on June 15 on Showtime instead. There’s not real loss in Adams, 29, not taking the fight, as he’s accomplished less in his career than the 35-year-old Ndam (37-3, 21 KOs), who is a former world champion at middleweight, and one of the top fighters at 160 for the last nine years. Based out of France, the Cameroon born N’Dam has wins over Curtis Stevens, Mehdi Amar, Affif Belghecham, Fulgencio Zuniga, Gennady Martirosyan, Omar Gabriel Weis, Avtandil Khurtsidze, Giovanni Lorenzo, Max Bursak, Alfonso Blanco, Ryota Murata and Martin Murray. There’s no comparison between the resumes of N’Dam and Brandon Adams. N’Dam has a lot more big wins than Adams as a pro, and a better amateur career as well in competing in the 2004 and 2016 Olympics.
N’Dam beat Ryota Murata by a controversial 12 round split decision in May 2017 to win the vacant World Boxing Association middleweight title. In their rematch five months later, Murata avenged his defeat in stopping Murata in the seventh round in October 2017. N’Dam was beaten by David Lemieux by a 12 round unanimous decision in a fight for the vacant IBF middleweight title in June 2015. Lemieux knocked N’Dam down four times in the fight.
Golovkin needs a good tune-up opponent for his first fight on DAZN, as he’s been out of the ring since last September, and he’s coming off of a bitter 12 round majority decision Canelo Alvarez. GGG would have been back by now, but the network that he’d been fighting for in the last six years, HBO, decided to get out of the boxing business. It took GGG months to decide which network platform to sign with. He shopped around, looking over offers from Top Rank Boxing/ESPN and Showtime before signing a nine figure, 6-fight, three-year contract with DAZN. In coming off the long break and the disappointing defeat at the hands of Alvarez, GGG needs a good tune-up opponent for him to get the rust out to get him ready to fight a trilogy match against Canelo this September on DAZN. N’Dam is perfect for Golovkin to get ready for Canelo. Although N’Dam has a much different style than Canelo, he’s got a lot of boxing skills to make it interesting and keep Golovkin on his toes. Golovkin is going to have to go after N’Dam if he wants to beat him, because the France based fighter is going to be hitting him with jabs, and moving for the entire fight. If Golovkin isn’t on his A-game, he could be made to look bad in winning against N’Dam. This is a guy that has a lot of wins over notable opposition during his 15-year pro career.
N’Dam and Golovkin have several common opponents in David Lemieux, Martin Murray, and Curtis Stevens. While Golovkin beat all three of those fighters by knockouts, N’Dam lost to Lemieux by a 12 round decision, and stopped Stevens and beat Murray by a 12 round decision.
Until the Golovkin-N’Dam fight is official, you have to take a wait and see approach to who Golovkin’s opponent will be. A lot of boxing fans and sites jumped the gun recently, putting out false news about GGG vs. Brandon Adams being a done deal. If GGG doesn’t fight N’Dam, then he could be stuck with Kamil Szeremeta (19-0, 4 KOs). That would arguably be a big step down from N’Dam, as the Polish fighter hasn’t beaten anyone of note during his career, and his KO percentage if a lowly 21. Without power, Szeremeta wouldn’t be able to keep GGG off of him for any length of time. It would be a bad mismatch. Szeremeta’s best wins as a pro have come against Kassim Ouma, Ruben Diaz, Alessandro Goddi, Rafal Jackiewicz, and Patrick Mendy. There’s a big difference between the level of opposition N’Dam has fought a a pro compared to Szeremeta. The only positives with GGG potentially fighting Szeremeta is he’s an unbeaten fighter at 19-0, and he’s highly ranked with the WBA and WBC at #2. He hasn’t beaten anyone for him to be rated that high unfortunately.