GGG STILL WITHOUT OPPONENT FOR MAY 5 FIGHT DATE
Unified WBA (Super), WBC, and IBF middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin is still without an opponent for his scheduled upcoming May 5th fight date. Golovkin was left without a fight partner after rival Saul "Canelo" Alvarez withdrew from their much anticipated rematch, originally scheduled for the T-Mobile Arena (the same venue as their first fight this past September) just off the strip in Las Vegas, NV. Alvarez withdrew after failing two drug tests in February in his hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico. The Nevada State Athletic Commission had a hearing scheduled for a little later this month, where the fight would have been called off anyway.
Alvarez and his Golden Boy team originally blamed the failed tests on contaminated beef in Mexico, which can be an issue sometimes. Alvarez tested positive for the banned substance "clenbuterol" at the end of February. The argument did not hold any weight however, and it was deemed highly likely that Alvarez would not be cleared at the originally scheduled April 10th hearing that was pushed back to the 18th. He was temporarily suspended on March 23 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after the results of the two drug tests became known. On April 3rd, Alvarez pulled out of the fight and Golovkin was left looking for a fill-in.
Golovkin (37-0-1, 33KO) and Alvarez fought to a highly controversial draw on September 16th in their first encounter, an entertaining fight that most had GGG winning. Judge Adalaide Byrd's ridiculous scorecard in favor of Canelo by a 118-110 margin is one of the most horrendous scorecards ever submitted in a major fight - and that's saying something. Her scorecard was widely ridiculed. She is no longer scoring fights, what a surprise.
Flash forward to now, and GGG has been left scrambling to find a fill-in opponent. Gary "Spike" O'Sullivan (27-2, 19KOs), 33, out of Ireland, suffered his two losses to current WBO Middleweight Champ Billy Joe Saunders, (more on him in a bit) and Chris Eubank Jr. in his two highest profile fights to date. O'Sullivan is coming off a 7th Round TKO of Antoine Douglas this past December, and was the favorite to play the fill-in role.
O'Sullivan decided to turn down the fight in the end, a bit of a surprising move, given the opportunity to fight such a high-profile opponent in Golovkin. However, because O'Sullivan's fans are all over in Ireland, and he is a relatively unknown otherwise, it was impossible for GGG's promoters and HBO to keep it as a pay-per-view event. It will now air on regular HBO - a smart move - and also a much tighter budget. This caused the offer to O'Sullivan on three week's notice to be less than desirable and the lack of time and lack of money weren't enough in the end.
It will be interesting to see if Tom Loefler and GGG's promotion staff can get another opponent lined up to still keep the May 5 date. The fight has already been moved to southern California where GGG draws better than Vegas. There are still a few opponents that some are clamoring for, but GGG has shown no interest in them as possible fill-ins, and rightfully so. He's been preparing to fight Canelo in a rematch and has put in a gameplan for that fight, it's really not a great situation for GGG to take on another young contender with just a few weeks to fight time.
Billy Joe Saunders (26-0, 12KOs) has the only Middleweight belt that GGG doesn't own, the WBO belt since 2015, and is a possible opponent. The belts are extremely important to Golovkin, and this fight would possibly give him all four Middleweight belts, which he would find very significant. Saunders is recovering from a hand injury however, and isn't expected to be back until late June at the earliest.
Unbeaten contender Demetrius Andrade (25-0, 16KOs) out of Providence, RI has said he would be ready to step in should the situation arise. Andrade is a top contender, and former 2-time titlist and could be a challenge to GGG, however, he's only fought 6 times since the end of 2012. Furthermore, Andrade hasn't been able to grow his following and doesn't present much upside for GGG to fight - at least at this time. The camp for WBC mandatory challenger, Sergiy Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10KOs), has petitioned to get their man a shot next, or Golovkin should have to surrender his WBC belt. However, it's unlikely that the sanctioning body would order a mandatory with less than a month's time before the fight.
For now, we wait and see if GGG will be back in action on May 5, but as for right now it is looking more and more unlikely.
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nice write-up @thesportsguy, its not looking good for May 5th..
Latest news is that Vanes Martirosyan has been offered the fight, but he's not ranked by any of the major bodies, hasn't fought in 2 years and is actually a light middle-weight!
Would be a shame if GGG gets stripped of the IBF title because he is waiting for the big $$$ for the Clenelo rematch..
Thanks @steem-beat appreciate it. I agree its not looking so good for May 5th anymore. I read the same thing earlier today that Martirosyan has been offered the fight, but like you pointed out, hasn't fought in 2 years and isn't ranked, etc. so not the most ideal candidate for sure.
I hope he doesn't get stripped either. He's hasn't ducked anybody and has always taken care of his mandatories as Champ; he's obviously in a unique situation and I agree I hope it doesn't cost him the IBF belt in the end. Still hope he can fight on May 5, even if it is a no-name at this point.