By Mark Eisner: Gennadiy Golovkin will be looking to make history with his 21st title defense for his IBF middleweight belt against Kamil Szeremeta on December 18th on DAZN.
Golovkin and the unbeaten Szeremeta are headlining on December 18th. Matchroom Boxing hasn’t said who the chief support will be for the card, but it should be interesting.
Golovkin’s cards always have talented fighters on the undercard, and this should be no exception.
GGG on the verge of his 21st record-breaking defense
Even though Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) recently captured his IBF 160lb title in his last fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko in October 2019, it’s still considered his 21st defense. It’s just not 21 consecutive defenses.
The reaction from boxing fans in Golovkin returning for his ‘Big Drama Show’ against Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs) is a mixture of disinterest, anger, mild interest, and confusion.
Fans haven’t heard of Poland born Szeremeta, and many of them are wondering what he did to deserve to be named the mandatory with the International Boxing Federation.
The IBF obviously has their rationale for picking Szeremeta as the mandatory, but it’s all good. It’s important that Golovkin,38, not fight someone talented enough to beat him because that would wreck his trilogy match against Canelo Alvarez, who is fighting a day late on December 19th against Callum Smith on DAZN. Canelo and Smith are headlining at the Alamodome in San Antoni, Texas.
. @gggboxing makes history on Dec 18 with a record breaking 21st defence of his World Middleweight title v IBF mandatory @szeremeta_kamil on @daznboxing from @HardRockHolly #BigDramaShow 🇰🇿 🇵🇱 pic.twitter.com/JnMeT1xZ91
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) November 24, 2020
The fans want to see Golovkin face the best, but they’re going to need to wait a little longer for him to take care of Szeremeta first. Canelo will almost surely be GGG’s next opponent in May of 2021 if he gets past Szeremeta first.
Golovkin has wanted Szeremeta fight
It’s not surprising that Golovkin is facing Szeremeta now, as this is a fighter that has been mentioned as a future opponent for him since June of last year after his win over little known Steve Rolls.
When the media were grilling Golovkin at the post-fight news conference after stopping Rolls in the fourth round, he let them know that Szeremeta is a fighter that he felt had a lot of talent and was a good future option for him.
The fans were more interested in Golovkin facing Jermall Charlo or Demetrius Andrade, but he didn’t seem excited about facing either of those guys.
Golovkin has gotten his way in defending against Szeremeta, even though his mandatory with the International Boxing Federation isn’t due. He wanted to get it out of the way early, and who can blame him for that?