Middleweight boxing legend Gennadiy Golovkin has to face a solid mandatory challenge that could end his career if accepted.
GGG lost to Canelo Alvarez when he couldn’t get out of the starting gate earlier this month. A shot-shy performance at 40 led many to offer their opinion that the Kazakh puncher should retire.
Canelo walked away with his WBC, WBA, WBO, and IBF super middleweight titles. The only saving grace for Golovkin was that he still held the IBF and WBA middleweight belts.
However, even his decision to fight on has now been taken out of his own hands by the WBA.
Who will Gennadiy Golovkin fight next?
They handed the following information to WBN regarding where Golovkin has to go next.
World Boxing Association (WBA) Championships Committee ordered the mandatory bout for middleweight super champion Gennady Golovkin.
The category champion must face Erislandy Lara as part of the world title reduction plan.
Golovkin and Lara will have a period of one month to reach an agreement for the fight. This will end on October 23.
The winner of this fight will be the only WBA 160-pound champion.
The pioneer organization granted special permission to the Kazakh monarch to move up a division and fight Saul Alvarez on September 17.
This had the condition that he would return to middleweight to face Lara and not be granted another special permission.
The WBA has made the decision attached to such resolution and to rule C.11, which states that the champion must defend his championship against the official contender 120 days after winning the title.
“GGG” won the title last April 9 by defeating Ryota Murata, so the deadline expired last August 8, and he must face the Cuban in his next fight.
If the teams do not agree or one refuses to do so, the fight will be sent to auction with a 75% split for Golovkin and 25% for Lara.
Will Gennadiy Golovkin retire?
Golovkin vs Lara will not be in the plans and could lead to the unified titleholder dropping the titles rather than accepting the challenge.
The only saving grace would be a massive promotional purse offer to follow through with the Lara event.
Unless DAZN remains involved, that is highly unlikely to happen.
Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews, Instagram, and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
