By Allan Fox: Gennadiy Golovkin reportedly may choose to sit on the shelf for the next fight months before facing WBA middleweight champion Ryota Murata on December 31st in Japan.

Many fans are beginning to suspect that the 39-year-old IBF 160-lb champion Golovkin is just looking to cash out with his career by taking only the biggest paydays before retiring when his final three fights of his six-fight contract with DAZN is up.

If Golovkin only fights once in 2021, his last two fights of his DAZN contract may be completed in 2022.

It’s no secret that Golovkin is hoping to fight Canelo Alvarez in a trilogy match, which would make him a lot of money.

By Golovkin choosing to fight only once in 2021 against arguably the weakest link among the weakest of the five champions at 160 in 35-year-old Murata, he decreases the chances he’ll get beaten.

GGG can ill-afford a loss because that would spell doom for his dreams of fighting Canelo a third time. The Mexican star obviously won’t bother fighting GGG a third time if he gets beaten.

Golovkin doesn’t have to worry that if he’s only fighting once in 2021 against Murata (16-2, 13 KOs), a fighter who has already been beaten by fringe contenders Rob Brant and Hassan N’Dam.

Despite having numerous opportunities for interesting fights against Demetrius Andrade, Jermall Charlo, Jaime Munguia, and Chris Eubank Jr, it’s believed that Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) wait until the Murata fight in December.

The boxing public and promoter Eddie Hearn weren’t happy at hearing the news of Golovkin potentially sitting until December 31st before fighting again because they wanted to see him in action in the summer.

Golovkin last fought last December, defeating his woefully poor-looking IBF mandatory Kamil Szeremeta by a seventh-round knockout. The fight didn’t interest the boxing world, as they wondered why Golovkin was taking on another no-name opponent.

While Canelo has received his own share of criticism for his decision to pad his record with fights against a 36-year-old Sergey Kovalev, Avni Yildirim, Daniel Jacobs, Rocky Fielding, and Callum Smith, his opposition has clearly been better than the guys Golovkin has been facing since 2019.

Since signing a 3-year, 6-fight deal with DAZN in 2019, Golovkin has fought these three fighters:

Steve Rolls
Sergiy Derevyanchenko
Kamil Szeremeta

It’s unclear whether DAZN has had any say on the guys that Golovkin has been fighting on their platform. Did they give Golovkin any friction when his management told them they wanted to fight Rolls, Szeremeta and Derevyanchenko?

It seems that DAZN should have insisted that Golovkin attempt to fight Andrade, Jaime Munguia, Jermall Charlo, Chris Eubank Jr, or Jermell Charlo.

The Rolls and Szeremeta fights were purely awful matches that brought very little interest from boxing fans. Derevyanchenko was a borderline fight and not one that the fans asking Golovkin to make.

With three fights left before GGG completes his current contract with DAZN, the Murata match will be a Szeremeta-level mismatch.

As we’ve seen in Murata’s losses to NDam and Brant, he’s a marginal level fighter who you can argue wouldn’t be a belt-holder if he had to fight a quality middleweight instead of going through Rob Brant to win his WBA belt.

“I work with him but I almost called out Gennadiy Golovkin,” said Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn to the DAZN Boxing Show.

“Golovkin is a big favourite in my opinion to beat Demetrius Andrade in a fight.

“I would like to see Gennadiy Golovkin fight Demetrius Andrade, unify, then fight Murata.

“Unify, then you can have an undisputed fight with Golovkin and [Jermall] Charlo. That’s what I believe Golovkin should do,” said Hearn.

It makes a lot of sense what Hearn is saying about Golovkin, but it’s unlikely that he will agree to fight Andrade or Charlo.

If Golovkin intends to cash out, as some boxing fans believe him to be doing, he’s going to take the easy route to finish up his final three fights on his DAZN contract.

Obviously, a fight with Canelo won’t be a soft fight for Golovkin, but the money he’ll make from that clash will make it worth it.