By Sean Jones: The WBA has ordered IBF/WBA middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin to defend against his mandatory Erislandy Lara next.
The negotiation period begins today and runs until October 23 to try to reach an agreement. If Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) and Lara have not reached an agreement by then, an auction will be called.
Golovkin, 40, is highly unlikely to agree to fight Lara (29-3-3, 17 KOs) at this stage of his career, with GGG coming off a loss to Canelo Alvarez.
Golovkin’s next move will likely be to vacate the WBA 160-pound title, treating it like a hot potato to be dumped.
Although Lara, 39, is no longer the fighter he once was, he is still fighting at a higher level than Golovkin, and it would be as difficult a fight for him as his fight with Canelo.
The WBA Championships Committee, in another decision following the world title reduction plan, ordered the fight between Super Middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) and his mandatory challenger Erislandy Lara (@Laraboxing) #GGGLara
— WBA Boxing (@WBABoxing) September 23, 2022
The negotiation period will be 30 days and began on September 23 when the communication was sent to the parties, while it will last until October 23.
— WBA Boxing (@WBABoxing) September 23, 2022
“Golovkin has talked about a world tour, fighting in his native Kazakhstan, fighting in Australia and maybe fighting in the UK,” Chris Mannix told 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’d want to see Golovkin against Jermall Charlo or even Jaime Munguia or Demetrius Andrade if he was fighting at 160.
“He hasn’t been shot as a boxer, but he’s nowhere near what he once was. We saw, especially in the first half of his fight against Canelo, that he couldn’t pull the trigger.
“When he’s up against younger guys, he avoids their 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 come out like this. Going out taking a beating from a younger fighter on a lesser stage,” Mannix said.
“I think they’ve done it for a while,” Mannix said of fighters wanting to fight Golovkin. “Jermall Charlo has been calling Golovkin for some time.
“You came back two or three years; The representatives of Golden Boy told me that at that time they would have put Jaime Munguia with Gennadiy Golovkin. Boxing people know what they see.”
