WBA orders Golovkin vs. Lara

By Boxing News - 09/23/2022 - Comments

By Sean Jones: The WBA has ordered IBF/WBA middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin to defend against his mandatory Erislandy Lara next.

The negotiation period starts today and runs through October 23rd to try and work a deal. If Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) and Lara haven’t made a deal by then, a purse bid will be called.

It’s highly unlikely the 40-year-old Golovkin will agree to fight Lara (29-3-3, 17 KOs) at this stage of his career, with GGG coming off a loss to Canelo Alvarez.

The next move by Golovkin will almost surely be him vacating the WBA 160-lb title, treating it like a hot potato that he must get rid of.

Even though the 39-year-old Lara isn’t the fighter that he once was, he’s still fighting at a higher level than Golovkin, and it would be just as difficult a fight for him as his fight with Canelo.

“Golovkin has talked about a worldwide tour, fighting in his native Kazakhstan, fighting in Australia, and maybe fighting in the UK,” said Chris Mannix to DAZN’s JABS about what Gennadiy Golovkin should do after his loss to Canelo Alvarez.

“What I’m not sure I want to see is Golovkin once again in a high-level fight. I’m not sure I want to see Golovkin against Jermall Charlo or even Jaime Munguia or Demetrius Andrade if he was fighting at 160.

“He’s not shot as a fighter, but he’s not close to what he once was. We saw, especially in the first half of his fight against Canelo, he couldn’t pull the trigger.

“When he’s going up against younger guys, he pulls his punches, he’s not as willing to throw the right hand as he was in the past. The last thing I want to see is one of the best middleweights of this generation going out like that. Going out by taking a beating from a younger fighter on a lesser stage,” said Mannix.

“I think they have for a while now,” Mannix said about fighters wanting to fight Golovkin. “Jermall Charlo has been calling out Golovkin for some time.

“You got back two or three years; representatives from Golden Boy were telling me that they would have put Jaime Munguia in with Gennadiy Golovkin back then. Boxing people know what they see.”

YouTube video