By Trevor McIntyre: Former middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin could be back inside the ring on October 5 in Los Angeles, California, according to Matchroom DAZN promoter Eddie Hearn.
Additionally, former heavyweight world title challenger Dereck Chisora will be fighting Joseph Parker on October 26 at the O2 Arena in London. Unfortunately for boxing fans, the Chisora-Parker fight is heading to Sky Sports Box Office. Parker (26-2, 20 KOs) has lost two out of his last four fights since 2018. His only wins have come against poor opposition in Alex Leapai and Alexander Flores.
GGG has no opponent selected yet
There’s isn’t an opponent yet for Golovkin (39-1-1, 35 KOs), but there’s still a lot of time for his promoter Tom Loeffler to select someone. What makes the selection process tougher for GGG is the opponent will need to be approved by DAZN. Golovkin, 37, already used up one of his fights on his six-bout deal with DAZN beating fringe contender Steve Rolls last June.
If Golovkin faces another mediocre fighter in his second fight of his contract with DAZN, then the streaming company would be letting him cruise through one-third of his contract facing lesser guys. One can’t entirely blame Golovkin though. He wants a trilogy fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez, but he’s not been able to get that fight. It’s possible that fight could take place in May of 2020, but it’s far from a sure thing.
Golovkin likely won’t fight WBC champion Jermall Charlo or WBO belt holder Demetrius Andrade next despite the boxing public wanting to see this fight. During GGG’s recent post-fight news conference after his win over Rolls, he said he wanted to fight some of the undefeated contenders. That narrows the potential opponents for Golovkin’s next fight to these guys: Kamil Szeremeta, Esquivia Falcao or Magomed Madiev. Those are all undefeated top contenders, but they’re not well known to the general public.
Dereck Chisora vs. Joseph Parker to headline at the O2 Arena on October 26
Former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (26-2, 20 KOs) and Dereck Chisora (31-9, 22 KOs) will be fighting on October 26 in the main event at the O2 Arena in London, England, according to Hearn. The 35-year-old Chisora has won four out of his last five fights in defeating Carlos Takam, Artur Szpilka, Senad Gashi and Zakaria Azzouzi. You can’t say that Chisora has gotten better in the last two years.
It’s more of a case of his promoter Hearn finding the right guys for him to beat. For example, Chisora’s last opponent Szpilka is a guy that had a history of suffering knockouts when he’s stepped it up a level. Szpilka had recently been knocked out by Adam Kownacki and Deontay Wilder. Putting him in with Chisora was for all intents and purposes a ‘gimme” for Delboy. He can beat these type of fighters. Where Chisora falls apart is when he’s been matched with guys with talent like Kubrat Pulev, David Haye, Vitali Klitschko, Tyson Fury and Agit Kabayel.