Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin was forced to wait four years for his long-awaited trilogy clash with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
He will now have roughly four months to eliminate the first of two mandatory challengers to his unified middleweight title reign.
The third and final entry in the Alvarez-Golovkin rivalry saw Alvarez of Guadalajara (58-2-2, 39KOs) successfully defend his undisputed super middleweight championship following a twelve-round unanimous decision victory last Saturday at T -Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight was blessed by the WBA on the condition that Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (42-2-1, 37KOs) decide immediately if he will return to middleweight, where he reigns as unified WBA/IBF “Super” champion and who will be required for the next. face WBA secondary champion Erislandy Lara.
“The Committee decided to approve the request for permission and if Golovkin wins the fight against ‘Canelo’ he will have five days (until September 23) to inform which title he wants to keep and defend,” the sanctioning body said at the time of publication. grant a waiver request filed by Golovkin. “If it’s the middleweight title, he’ll have 120 days to face Erislandy Lara in a mandatory fight.
“If he loses, he will have the same deadline to defend his middleweight title against the Cuban in his next fight.”
Golovkin, 40, will have until mid-January to face Lara (29-3-3, 17KOs) to avoid having to vacate the WBA’s premier middleweight title. He already stated after the loss to Alvarez that he plans to return to middleweight after fighting at full super middleweight for the first time in his sixteen year career.
“Remember guys, I still have three belts at 160,” Golovkin noted after his unsuccessful bid to become a two-division champion. “I’ll be back, guys. I’m still [the middleweight] champ guys.
Golovkin inherited Lara as the mandatory challenger after scoring a ninth-round knockout of Ryota Murata in their unification fight on April 9 in Saitama, Japan. Golovkin defended his IBF title and ended Murata’s WBA ‘Super’ title reign with victory, his fourth in a row following his first loss to Alvarez in their September 2018 rematch.
Lara claimed the WBA ‘World’ (Regular) secondary middleweight title following a first-round knockout of would-be contender Thomas ‘Cornflake’ LaManna last May 1 in Carson, California. Since then, the Cuban export has made one successful defense, an eighth-round knockout of Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan on May 28 in Brooklyn, New York.
Esquiva Falcao has been the number one contender in the IBF middleweight rankings since a technical split decision victory over Patrick Volny in their title eliminator last November 20 in Las Vegas. Falcao, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist who lost a disputed decision to Murata in the final, has fought once since victory as he waited for the IBF to finally order the title fight.
Golovkin-Lara would come as part of the WBA’s ongoing title reduction campaign if the sanctioning body remembers to abide by its own prior order and commitment. Progress has been slow even when the WBA’s hand was forced last summer in the matter. Middleweight remains one of only seven divisions in which the WBA still claims two recognized titleholders.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
