Armed with his recently captured IBF middleweight title, Gennadiy Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs will be facing either Saul Canelo Alvarez of his IBF mandatory Kamil Szeremeta in May of 2020. Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) prefers that he face Canelo (52-1-2, 35 KOs) in a trilogy match, but it’ll be up to him whether he wants to take the fight or not. Szeremeta is the EBU middleweight champion.
GGG will face Szeremeta next unless Canelo agrees to fight him
With Golovkin winning the vacant IBF title, it’s likely that the sanctioning body will order him to face Szeremeta. When fighters win vacant titles, there’s supposed to face their mandatory in their first title defense. They can sometimes can get an exception from the sanctioning body, but mostly they’re supposed to face their mandatory immediately. Canelo is the WBA and WBC [F] middleweight champion. So a fight between him and Golovkin would be a unification, and the IBF would likely not stand in the way of that fight
It’s now starting to look like Canelo might choose to take the fight with Golovkin in early 2020 after he faces WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KOs) on November 2 on DAZN. Canelo’s comments this week to Azteca were promising in which a fight between him and Golovkin would be business level match. The Mexican star isn’t ruling out like he’d been doing. Canelo might realize now that if he doesn’t take the fight with Golovkin as soon as possible, the match could be worthless.
Golovkin almost last Saturday in winning a controversial 12 round decision over Sergiy Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs), and he doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to keep winning for much longer. Canelo will get a huge payday if he takes the fight with Golovkin He obviously won’t want to lose out on a nice payday like that, especially with GGG suddenly looking shot.
Hearn talks Golovkin’s options for early 2020
“He wants Canelo. He had a tough fight last Saturday night, a brilliant fight,” said Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn to IFL TV about Golovkin in talking about his recent fight with Sergiy Derevyanchenko. “Szeremeta, a European champion, a Polish kid,” said Hearn about Golovkin’s possible next fight in early 2020.
“He’s undefeated, and he’s the mandatory. It’s just whether they make him. It’s for the vacant title so it’s whether they make him fight the mandatory. That can wait obviously if he fights Canelo,” said Hearn.
Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs) is ranked #2 WBC, #3 WBA and #4 IBF at middleweight. He looked good last Saturday in stopping Oscar Cortes (27-5, 14 KOs) in round 2 on the Golovkin vs. Derevyanchenko undercard. Last year, Szeremeta defeated Alessandro Goddi by a 2nd round knockout to capture the vacant European Boxing Union middleweight title.
“Sources: GGG is interested in fulfilling his IBF mandatory early with a first-quarter fight against Kamil Szeremeta, and there’s a tentative deal in place. Barring a Canelo fight, Szeremeta is likely GGG’s next opponent. That and more for The Athletic,” said @MikeCoppinger.
