Gennadiy Golovkin to fight on November 21st on DAZN

By Boxing News - 09/23/2020 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Gennadiy Golovkin will be fighting two months from now on November 21st, says Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn. Golovkin is expected to defend his IBF middleweight belt against his mandatory Kamil Szeremeta on DAZN. The fight will take place at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

There’s not much demand from fans in a Golovkin vs. Szeremeta fight, but it looks like it’s going to happen anyway. Fighting the light-hitting Szeremeta will allow Golovkin to regroup a little following the punishment that Sergiy Derevyanchenko dished out against him last October. Golovkin arguably took more punishment in that fight than any other previous one, including his second bout against Canelo Alvarez.

There’s been zero talk about GGG’s title defense against #1 IBF ranked Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs). If this is how the fight will be promoted, DAZN won’t get much value for the money they’re paying Golovkin. The fans would like to see Golovkin face one of the top middleweights like Demetrius Andrade, who would jump at the chance to face GGG if the fight were offered to him.

Should Golovkin vacate his IBF title?

You can argue that Golovkin would be 100 times better off if he relinquished his IBF 160-lb title so that he wouldn’t have to waste one of his fights on DAZN facing the obscure fighter Szeremeta.

Even hardcore boxing fans aren’t familiar with that guy, and you can imagine what the casual fans will be thinking when Golovkin vs. Szeremeta is announced.

Numerous options are out there for Golovkin that are far better choices than for him to defend against Szeremeta. If Golovkin believes that he needs the IBF title to get Canelo to fight him again, then he’s mistaken. Gololovkin doesn’t need the IBF strap to get a fight against Canelo.

Image: Gennadiy Golovkin to fight on November 21st on DAZN

We’ve already seen Canelo ignore a ton of different champions who had titles, and yet still didn’t fight them. For example, Canelo didn’t take on David Benavidez when he held the WBC super-middleweight title.

He also didn’t face IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev when he moved up to 175 last November to go after his fourth division world title. If Canelo wants to fight GGG, it won’t matter if he doesn’t have the IBF belt in his possession. On the flip side, if Canelo wants no part of GGG, he can have all four titles and still won’t fight him.

If Golovkin gave up the IBF belt, it would allow him to pursue fights that the fans want to see as a match him and Jermall Charlo or a rematch with Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Even a second contest with Daniel Jacobs would be infinitely more appealing for the fans than seeing Golovkin face Szeremeta.

Of course, if Golovkin only wants the fight against Szeremeta because he views him as an easy fight, well, then you can understand that. There are too many fighters taking soft opponents right now, and it would be refreshing if Golovkin decided he wasn’t going to be a part of that.

Will Canelo fight Golovkin next May?

If he’s going to fight the little known Szeremeta in two months from now in November, they need to start talking about the match. Matchroom should be trying to create interest in the GGG-Szeremeta fight because fans are not interested.

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Golovkin needs to satisfy his mandatory defense against Szeremeta so that he can move forward to potentially face Canelo Alvarez in a trilogy match in May 2021 on DAZN. We don’t know what the situation is going to be with Canelo Alvarez, unfortunately.

He’s got litigation out on DAZN, Golden Boy Promotions, and Oscar De La Hoya, and he may not be freed up from that to fight by next May. On the other hand, if Canelo leaves DAZN, it will make it difficult to potentially set-up the third fight with GGG if signs with a competing network.

There are a lot of boxing fans that still want to see Canelo and GGG fight again, but that may be problematic if he’s not with DAZN any longer. It wouldn’t be a big deal if Canelo fought other interesting fighters like the Charlo twins, David Benavidez, Caleb Plant, Dmitry Bivol, or Artur Beterbiev.

There’s a perfect chance that Canelo won’t face Golovkin in May because his litigation could still be dragging on with DAZN and Golden Boy.