By Sean Jones: Gennadiy Golovkin’s next fight is now being planned for April 11 against his IBF mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta for either Kazakhstan or the United States. This would be shown on DAZN. Fans are really turned off about the Golovkin-Szeremeta fight, and it’s a fight that may be ignored by a lot of fans on April 11. Unless Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn puts together a good undercard, the fans may choose not to bother watching.
The decision by Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) and his handlers for him to keep the IBF middleweight title that he won by a controversial 12 round decision over Sergiy Derevyanchenko last October is a questionable move.
Golovkin choosing to keep IBF title could be a mistake
With the decision by GGG to keep the belt rather than vacate, he’s now fighting a guy that fans have no interest in seeing him fight in 29-year-old Szeremeta, who’s career best win was arguably against little known Oscar Cortes. This is a fighter that had been beaten in his previous fight by Hugo Centeno Jr.
“Still talking. There’s the potential for Kazakhstan fight,” said Hearn to IFL TV about Golovkin’s next fight. “Szeremeta is the mandatory challenger. It’s a possibility of in Kazakhstan or America.”
Most boxing fans would agree that GGG is potentially hurting his career with his decision to go ahead and fight Szeremeta. The reasons for that are as follows:
GGG’s last ‘win’ over Sergiy Derevyanchenko: A massive amount of people believed that Golovkin lost the fight to Derevyanchenko on October 5, and they think he won just because of his popularity. The obvious thing Golovkin should have done was grant Sergiy, 34, an immediate rematch to show the boxing world that he realized that he was given a gift against the Ukrainian fighter.
GGG not giving Derevyanchenko a rematch
Golovkin complained after his 12 round draw against Canelo in 2017, and he was given a rematch. But when the shoe is on the other foot, and he’s given a win that fans felt he didn’t deserve against Derevyanchenko, he moves without fighting him again. The fans would be more forgiving of GGG failing to give Derevyanchenko a rematch if he were fighting a quality opponent like Jermall Charlo or Demetrius Andrade in his next fight.
Sadly, that’s not what GGG is doing. He’s taking a soft opponent that fans have zero interest in seeing him fight in Szeremeta. Career-wise, GGG is poisoning his what’s left of his career by making the wrong moves.
Golovkin’s loss to Canelo Alvarez: GGG lost to Canelo, and a lot of his popularity with fans went out the window with that defeat. While it was a great idea for GGG to fight Derevyanchenko, it’s not smart for him to have fought Steve Rolls and now looking to face Szeremeta.