Gennadiy Golovkin has decided to take on another obligatory fight before the one that was originally requested of him.
Golovkin, who now holds the middleweight title for both the WBA and the IBF, will make his next defense against Esquiva Falcao, who is currently ranked as the number-one contender in the middleweight division by the IBF. This information was confirmed by OKBET Boxing News.
The decision was made as the 30-day deadline for Golovkin to negotiate negotiations with Erislandy Lara, who holds the secondary WBA middleweight title, for their planned title consolidation fight came closer.
In an interview with OKBET Boxing News, the president of the WBA, Gilberto Jesus Mendoza, confirmed information that had been previously reported by OKBET Boxing. He stated that an official notice would soon be sent to clarify the official verdict. Due to the fact that the sanctioning organizations have not yet sent the notification in question, the camps representing Golovkin and Falcao were unable to respond.
Previously, Golovkin (42-2-1, 37KOs) was on the clock to next face Lara. This was a condition of the granted special permit approved by the WBA that allowed the unified middleweight titlist to first face his longtime rival Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. Lara was scheduled to fight Golovkin in the next fight.
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At the third and final installment of their trilogy, which took place on September 17 at a limit of super middleweight, Guadalajara’s Alvarez defended his undisputed championship with a decisive victory over Golovkin at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
It was established at the time that Golovkin did not have any more exemptions that he could file with the WBA in order to further delay a championship consolidation battle with Lara (29-3-3, 17KOs). According to the previous rule, the bout between Golovkin and Lara was supposed to take place no later than one hundred and twenty days after the conclusion of Alvarez-Golovkin III.
It would appear that Brazil’s Falcao, who has a perfect record of 30-0 with 20 knockouts, skipped ahead of the line by taking advantage of a loophole in the IBF’s rules.
Since making the transition to the professional ranks in February 2014, Olympic silver winner Falcao has struggled in relative obscurity. Falcao moved up to the mandatory place in the IBF middleweight rankings as a result of two different victories that he achieved in Las Vegas in 2021. One of these victories was a technical decision victory over unbeaten Patrice Volny on November 20.
Only one fight has taken place since then for the southpaw, who is now 32 years old. It took place on May 29 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and was won by decision over Cristian Fabian Rios.
After Golovkin knocked out Ryota Murata in the ninth round of their IBF/WBA unification fight on April 9 at Saitama Arena in Saitama, Japan, Lara was inherited by Golovkin as the mandatory challenger for the middleweight title. In spite of the fact that Murata hadn’t competed since December 2019, he was able to not only keep his secondary WBA title status but also get a promotion to WBA ‘Super’ champ during his time off.
After beating Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a fight for the vacant IBF title in October 2019, Golovkin successfully defended his title and won by unanimous decision after all twelve rounds. Since then, he has been required to defend his championship, which he did in December 2020 by knocking out Kamil Szeremeta of Poland in the seventh round of their fight.
Lara knocked out Thomas “Cornflake” LaManna in the first round of their fight on May 1 in Carson, California, which was the date on which she earned the WBA “World” (Regular) middleweight title. He made the decision to keep the middleweight championship while relinquishing the WBA junior middleweight title, which he had held from August 2019 until the summer of last year. He held both titles simultaneously. His sole attempt to defend the middleweight title resulted in a knockout victory in the eighth round against Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan, which took place on May 28 in Brooklyn, New York.
In the upcoming resolution, it will be made clear that Lara is now able to voluntarily defend his championship, and he will be given the guarantee that he will be given a chance to defeat whoever ultimately emerges victorious. That, of course, is going to depend on whether or not Golovkin and Falcao really end up fighting and the winner of that fight deciding not to give up the WBA belt. The two sanctioning bodies are adamant that Golovkin does not qualify for any of the special permit exceptions.
It is currently unknown how or when Lara will engage in her next battle. The Cuban fighter is managed by Premier Boxing Champions, which does not currently have any fight dates scheduled for 2022 beyond a Showtime show that will take place at The Armory in Minneapolis on November 5. Lara has not been penciled in for an appearance on that show as of yet.
Golovkin, who manages his own career through his own GGG Promotions, and Falcao, who is promoted by Top Rank, are anticipated to begin discussions as soon as they receive the joint judgment from the IBF and WBA.
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