By Barry Holbrook: Gennadiy Golovkin will be making his long-awaited defense of his IBF middleweight title against mandatory Kamil Szeremeta on December 18th or 19th on DAZN.
Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) is finally getting this fight out of the way against the unbeaten Szeremeta (20-0, 5 KOs).
According to Mike Coppinger, once Golovkin, 38, takes care of Szeremeta, he’ll move on to big “marquee” fights in 2021. The marquee fights involve Demetrius Andrade, Callum Smith, and Billy Joe Saunders.
DAZN is paying Golovkin a lot of money as part of his contract with them, but they’re not going to get their money’s worth with him defending against Szeremeta.
There are a large number of arguably more appealing fighters that Golovkin could face instead of Szeremeta if he wanted to.
Golovkin vs. Szeremeta won’t help DAZN
You can argue that Golovkin would be doing DAZN a massive failure if he vacated his IBF title so that he can focus on fighting talented opposition. DAZN needs to bring in subscribers for their platform, and Golovkin isn’t helping them any by fighting Szeremeta.
If Golovkin vacated the IBF title, he could then ignore Szeremeta and go after one of the well-known middleweights like Jermall Charlo.
When Golovkin chose to fight Sergiy Derevyanchenko last year in October for the vacant IBF 160-lb title, it was a strange move. The title didn’t mean anything, and it wasn’t going to help Golovkin get the fight he wanted against Canelo. But now that Golovkin has the IBF belt, it helps him get an easy fight on DAZN against his mandatory Szeremeta.
If Golovkin didn’t have the IBF title, DAZN would likely expect him to face a quality middleweight to earn the money they’re paying him a part of his eight-figure contract with them. But having the IBF title allows Golovkin to take an easy fight.
Seeing that Szeremeta is Golovkin’s IBF mandatory, it works for him to slip an easy fight in as part of his contract with DAZN. It’s an awful fight, though, and likely won’t bring many subscribers to DAZN.
With Canelo Alvarez having ended his contract with DAZN, it’s more important than ever that Golovkin face opposition that boxing fans are interested in seeing.
The little known 31-year-old Szeremeta, who comes from Poland, has never fought anyone of note. He’s spent most of his career fighting in his native Poland against obscure second and third-tier opposition.
The magic question is, why did the International Boxing Federation make Szeremetaa the mandatory challenger and give him a #1 ranking?
Based on the poor opposition that Szeremeta has faced throughout his career, he shouldn’t be ranked in the top 15. He should be way down in the 50 to the 100 spot in the IBF’s rankings.
If there were only one governing body logically doing all the ranking, you wouldn’t see ill-equipped fighters like Szeremeta ranked #1 and knocking on the door for a world title shot.
GGG to fight marquee names in 2021
“Sources: Gennadiy Golovkin’s title defense against Kamil Szeremeta is being targeted for Dec. 18 or Dec. 19 in the U.S. on DAZN. Once the streaming service finally sorts this out for GGG, he can look to marquee fights in the spring of 2021,” said @MikeCoppinger on Golovkin’s next fight.
These are the “marquee” name opponents Golovkin will be trying to fight next year:
“Billy Joe Saunders, Callum Smith, Demetrius Andrade,” Coppinger said in naming the marquee fights that Golovkin will be looking to take in 2021 on DAZN.
Andre is easily the best of those three. Callum and Saunders are both from the UK and coming off of unimpressive performances.