By Barry Holbrook: There’s a lot of questions about how much Gennadiy Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) has left as he heads into 2020 following his controversial 12 round unanimous decision win over Sergiy Derevyanchenko on October 5.

After the scores were announced, Golovkin, 37, was basically booed out of Madison Square Garden in New York. The boxing fans reacted angrily to GGG winning the fight instead Derevyanchenko, who appeared to have done enough to edge the by 2 rounds. The scores were 115-112, 115-112, 114-113 for GGG. Derevyanchenko hurt Golovkin in rounds 5 and 10, and dominated the championship rounds.

The options for Golovkin in 2020 are these fighters:

Kamil Szeremeta – * IBF mandatory
Canelo Alvarez
Jermall Charlo
Billy Joe Saunders
Callum Smith
Demetrius Andrade
Sergiy Derevyanchenko
Ryota Murata
Daniel Jacobs

With the big money that DAZN is paying Golovkin, they’re going to want to see him fight a name guy. If Canelo doesn’t want to fight GGG, then they’ll want him to fight most popular available fighter. Jermall Charlo is with Premier Boxing Champions, and he fights on Showtime.

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has made an offer to Charlo to fight on DAZN, but he wants him to fight Demetrius Andrade. However, it’s unlikely that Golovkin would agree to fight Charlo even if he were available to fight DAZN.

It’s believed that Golovkin will look to fight Murata or Saunders in the second half of 2020, if he can’t get the Canelo trilogy fight. Murata and Saunders aren’t major talents, and Golovkin would have a better chance against them. It won’t look good if Golovkin fights Murata, because that would be a cherry pick.

Golovkin NOT giving Derevyanchenko a rematch

Golovkin’s next move heading into the New Year is to defend his newly won IBF middleweight title against his mandatory Kamil Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs). This isn’t a fight that boxing fans want to see. They were hoping GGG would take the high road, and give Derevyanchenko a much needed rematch. Instead of doing that, Golovkin and his management have chosen to get the mandatory out of the way early against Szeremeta.

The idea is that once Szeremeta is out of the way, Golovkin will be free to fight Canelo Alvarez in a trilogy match in September. That’s the fight that Golovkin and DAZN both want, but not necessarily Canelo Alvarez. He’s tired of fighting Golovkin, since he’s already proven that he’s better than him in their last fight in 2018.

Golovkin hasn’t looked good in a long time. He struggled in his 2 fights with Canelo Alvarez, and looked bad against Derevyancheko, Daniel Jacobs, Kell Brook and Steve Rolls. You can argue that Golovkin should have an additional 3 defeats on his resume. Jacobs and Derevyanchenko both deserves wins over GGG, according to many boxing people.

It’s not surprising Canelo doesn’t want to fight GGG again

Canelo feels like he doesn’t owe Golovkin anything, and that he doesn’t have anything to prove in fighting him again. It’s like beating someone in chess repeatedly. After awhile, it’s no longer interesting to play them, because you know you’re going to beat them.

If Golovkin had looked good in beating Rolls and Derevyanchenko, it would be motivating for Canelo to fight him again. The problem is, Golovkin DIDN’T look good, and it’s not interesting for Canelo.

Golovkin has already wrecked things for a third fight with Canelo by his poor showings against Derevyanchenko and Rolls. Now he’s making things worse by not giving Derevyanchenko a badly needed rematch. Say what you want about Canelo being given a controversial draw in his first fight with GGG, but he showed clear in giving him a rematch.

2020 can be a big year for Golovkin

There’s fights that Golovkin could take in 2020 that would impress the boxing public, and make them forget about the last three years of his career. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like GGG is going to take the risky fights. The perception that people have is Golovkin is just looking for a cash out against Canelo, and then finish out his contract with DAZN by taking easy fights.

The easy fights that Golovkin is expected to take are against these fighters:

Kamil Szeremeta: He’s like another Rocky Fielding type of fighter, and an easy mark for Golovkin
Ryota Murata – the weakest link among the current middleweight champions
Billy Joe Saunders – A soft hitting super middleweight, who was almost beaten in his last fight by Marcelo Esteban Coceres
Chris Eubank Jr.
Jaime Munguia

Fans want to see Golovkin fight Canelo, Derevyanchenko, Charlo [either brother] and Jacobs in 2020. If Golovkin can fight those types of guys, the boxing world will be pleased.

What Golovkin should do is vacate his IBF title in order to get Szeremeta out of the picture permanently, because there’s no interest from U.S fans in seeing GGG fight him. It won’t be good for DAZN if Golovkin faces Szeremeta, because it won’t bring in a lot of subscribers.