By Ken Hissner: After being robbed in drawing in a highly disputed decision to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez going 3-0, the now 39-year-old IBF and IBO Middleweight champion Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin hasn’t fought in over a year.

‘Golovkin then WBA, WBC and IBF champion chased Alvarez, 49-1-1, for the last seven rounds, and only because of scores from judge Adalaide Byrd in favor of Canelo at 118-110 and a 114-114 by judge Don Trella was there ever a rematch in the first place. This was in September of 2017.

Rumored over a financial decision, Golovkin left trainer Abel Sanchez and hired Jonathan Banks. Before a rematch with Canelo, he stopped Vanes “Nightmare” Martirosyan, 36-3-1, who hadn’t ever been stopped in May 2018.

It would be almost a year to the day when he and Canelo had their rematch while Alvarez was inactive for that year with a new trainer fought the entire fight doing more boxing than punching as he did in their first fight. He wasn’t Floyd “Money” Mayweather who boxed Alvarez’s ears off. He was a boxer-puncher who threw few power punches losing a majority decision.

Close enough to be called a draw, judges Glenn Feldman saw it 114-114 while judges Steve Weisfeld and Dave Moretti both had it 115-113 for Canelo. Instead of Canelo giving Golovkin a rematch like he was given, he moved up to super middleweight in his next fight, stopping Rocky Fielding, 27-1 three months later. Was this to avoid a third fight with Golovkin?

Canelo would return to middleweight for one fight but not with Golovkin but Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs, 35-2, who Golovkin had defeated. It had been eight months since the second fight with Golovkin.

A month after that, Golovkin returned to the ring, stopping Steve Rolls, 19-0, with both weighing 163. Four months later, being the No. 1 ranked IBF contender in October of 2019, he defeated No. 2 IBF ranked Sergiy “The Technician” Derevyanchenko, 13-1, for the vacant IBF and IBO titles.

It would be over fourteen months before Golovkin would fight again in December 2020, stopping his No. 1 contender Kamil Szeremeta, 21-0, of Poland. Why did nothing develop during 2021 until the end of the year that his management and promoter were at fault?

Golovkin was finally scheduled to fight WBA Middleweight champion Japan’s Ryota Murata, 16-2, who hadn’t fought since December of 2019. The IBF’s No. 1 and No. 2 spots were vacant, so why not unify both titles? It made sense, but why did it take so long? Then Japan, due to the Pandemic, decides to call the fight off weeks before the battle.

Someone should have been put in to replace him even in a non-title fight, but no! Now no new date has been set. Why wasn’t the contest moved to the United States?

In April, the always well-conditioned Golovkin will be turning forty but not getting any younger, especially now being inactive for over a year. His top contender in the IBF is No. 3 ranked Patrick Wojcicki, 15-0-1, of Germany, who, after two years of inactivity, fought in early December so that he couldn’t fill in for Murata.

Let’s hope a fight with Wojcicki or Murata elsewhere than Japan like the three times he fought in Nevada can be made for Golovkin. All of Wojcicki’s fights have been in Germany but once in the UK. But if he wants a title fight, he would surely come to the United States for that, or Golovkin would take the next highest contender.