Gennadiy Golovkin’s return to the middleweight division comes with his next assignment in tow.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the WBA has formally ordered a title consolidation clash between Kazakhstan’s Golovkin and Erislandy Lara. Both sides were notified Friday afternoon to enter an allotted 30-day negotiation period and reach an agreement no later than October 23 to avoid an auction hearing.
Golovkin is the unified WBA ‘Super’ and IBF middleweight champion, while Lara holds the WBA ‘World’ (Regular) title.
“The WBA has made the decision attached to said resolution and to rule C.11, which establishes that the champion must defend his championship against the official contender 120 days after winning the title,” said Carlos Chavez, president of the WBA Championship Committee. the WBA in a letter to both boxers, a copy of which was obtained by BoxingScene.com. “GGG won the title on April 9 by defeating Ryota Murata, so the deadline expired on August 8 and he must face the Cuban in his next fight.”
If the fight goes to an auction hearing, Golovkin would be entitled to the favorable end of a 75-25 split as the Super champion.
Golovkin (42-2-1, 37KOs) inherited Lara as the mandatory challenger by defeating Murata in the ninth round of their title unification fight on April 9 in Saitama, Japan. The 40-year-old Kazakh boxer defended his IBF belt as he claimed the WBA ‘Super’ title with victory.
The WBA refrained from ordering Golovkin to face Lara (29-3-3, 17KOs), due to an existing agreement that calls for the two-time unified middleweight champion to face Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (58-2- 2, 39KOs) in a long-coveted trilogy clash. The fight took place on September 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where Álvarez won a twelve-round unanimous decision to defend his undisputed super middleweight championship.
Golovkin moved up in weight for the fight, so his middleweight title reign was unaffected. However, the exception granted to face Alvarez in lieu of a mandatory title defense came with the conditional approval of the WBA, who reminded Golovkin that he would have 120 days to face Lara.
“The [WBA] granted special permission to [Golovkin] moving up a division and fighting Saúl Álvarez on September 17, on the condition that he return to middleweight to face Lara and not be granted another special permit,” Chavez said.
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. The Cuban export previously served as the WBA’s secondary junior middleweight champion, vacating the belt in favor of remaining at middleweight. Since then he has made one successful defense, an eighth-round knockout of Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan on May 28 in Brooklyn, New York.
If either party refuses to go through with the fight, his title will be vacated and the middleweight division will finally be left with a recognized WBA champion.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
