Weights: Gennady Golovkin 159.2 vs Kamil Szeremeta 159
Ali Akhmedov 167.4 vs Carlos Gongora 167.2
Hyun Mi Choi 130 vs Calista Silgado 131.4
John Ryder 170.2 vs Michael Guy 168.2
Gennadiy Golovkin will be looking to make his record-breaking 21st title defense this Friday night on December 18th when he defends his IBF middleweight title against Kamil Szeremeta on DAZN. The main card on DAZN will begin at 5:00 p.m. EST / 2:00 p.m. PST, with Golovkin and Szeremeta expected to make their ring walks at 8:00 p.m. EST / 5:30 p.m. PST.
Golovkin is still on the verge of breaking the record for title defenses despite the fact that he lost to Canelo Alvarez in 2018. In other words, these aren’t 21 consecutive title defenses. It’s just 21 defenses.
That takes away the shine of the record, if you ask me. Still, Golovkin needs to create interest in his fight against the little known Szeremeta because the boxing public has paid very little attention to it for obvious reasons.
Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) will be facing his IBF mandatory Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs) in the headliner position at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida.
Szeremeta is one of those fighters that the International Boxing Federation has discovered and given a high ranking. None of the other sanctioning bodies have Szeremeta ranked, which is understandable given the low-level opposition he’s faced during his career.
It’s still hard to understand what the IBF saw in Szeremeta to give him such a high ranking.
Szeremeta’s last eight fights:
- Oscar Cortes
- Edwin Palacios
- Andrew Francillette
- Ruben Diaz
- Alessandro Goddi
- Sebastian Skrzypczynski
- Jose Antonio Villalobos
- Kassim Ouma
It’s been 14 months since GGG, 38, last fought in defeating Sergiy Derevyanchenko by a close 12 round unanimous decision on October 5th, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
That fight was one of the worst of Golovkin’s career with him being given what many boxing fans viewed as a gift decision by the judges in picking up the vacant IBF 160-lb title.
It was such a bad performance by Golovkin that the fans booed him out of the ring afterward, which had to be a surprise for him because New York has always been one of GGG’s best places to fight.
But the fans didn’t agree that Golovkin had done enough to rate the win over Derevyanchenko.
This Friday, Golovkin should be fine because he’s facing a guy that never fought a world contender before in 31-year-old Polish fighter Szeremeta, and he arguably has no business fighting for a world title.
We could see a similar outcome as Golovkin’s fourth-round knockout over little known Steve Rolls in June of last year.
DAZN perhaps didn’t realize what type of fights they would get out of Golovkin when they signed him in 2019. They probably thought they were going to see repeated fights between GGG and Canelo Alvarez.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. Instead of getting fights between Golovkin and Canelo, we’re about to see GGG face Steve Rolls and Derevyanchenko.
Now we’re about to see Golovkin defend against Szeremeta, which is every bit a mismatch against the Golovkin-Rolls fight.
Golovkin got some bad news a couple of weeks ago when Canelo Alvarez revealed that he’s not going to be fighting Golovkin soon, as he’s looking to capture all the titles at 168 first.
It could take Canelo a couple of years to accomplish that goal, so we probably won’t see the third match between him and GGG until 2022 or 2023. Golovkin will be 40 or 41 by that point.
As long as Golovkin keeps himself in shape, it should be too much of a farce in a fight between him and Canelo. Until then, Golovkin must keep winning because if he gets beaten, he can forget about Canelo.
The Mexican star probably won’t be too bummed out if Golovkin gets beaten because he doesn’t seem all that motivated to fight him again.
You have to remember that Canelo believes he’s already beaten GGG twice, so it’s less important to him to face him again than it is for the fans.
It’ll be interesting to see who Golovkin faces next after the Szeremeta fight. Will GGG continue to fight guys like Szermeta and Steve Rolls, or will DAZN put his feet to the fire and insist that he start fighting quality opposition?
It would be helpful for Golovkin to vacate his IBF title and move up to 168 to face Canelo in two or three years eventually. It’s pointless for GGG to stay at 160 because he’s obviously never going to fight Jermall Charlo or Demetrius Andrade.
