Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is one of the most feared and avoided punchers in the sport today, but one man is willing to call him out—Erislandy Lara. Coming off an easy victory over Ishe Smith to retain his WBA junior middleweight belt, he boldly challenged some of boxing’s top names via Twitter.
Lara posted a photo of Smith, Canelo Alvarez and Austin Trout photoshopped onto babies’ bodies, representing the three fighters he beat this year. Of course Lara was only 2-1 in those three fights, having dropped a controversial split decision to Alvarez, but he’s proceeded forward as if he had won.
Miguel Cotto is expected to face Alavarez on May 2, while Floyd Mayweather is famously in talks to fight Manny Pacquiao in 2015. That leaves Golovkin, who is scheduled to fight on February 21 against Martin Murray.
Golovkin is much more active than Cotto or Mayweather; even though he’s considered the top middleweight in the world his power and relatively low profile have made it difficult for him to make big fights. Golovkin has repeatedly called out Cotto, but if the fight with Alvarez happens in May then he’ll have to wait until the fall at earliest.
Golovkin fought four times in 2013, and would’ve fought that many times this year had one fight not been postponed so he could grieve the death of his father. Taking on Lara would pit one of boxing’s finest offense fighters against the defense-first “Cuban School.”
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