Gennady Golovkin may have a big-name opponent to fight this year, as long as he's willing to delay his quest to acquire all the titles in the middleweight division.
WBA and IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch badly wants a big fight in Las Vegas before he retires, and although fellow super middleweight Andre Ward has said he's willing to fight Froch for the second time, in England, Froch may elect to fight the Kazakh knockout artist instead.
"I quite like the Ward fight and I also like the Golovkin fight because how much kudos do you get for fighting Golovkin?" Froch's manager Eddie Hearn said.
Golovkin is scheduled to fight in May against unheralded southpaw Willie Monroe Jr., and after that is the mandatory challenger for the WBC middleweight title. Miguel Cotto has that belt, and is expected to fight Jorge Sebastian Heiland in June for that title; the WBC has mandated the winner's next fight be against Golovkin.
Froch would surely be a big name, but Golovkin has said he wants to unify the 160-pound division, and that his primary focus is fighting Cotto, who will be heavily favored against Heiland. His promotional team said they'll do whatever it takes to get Cotto in the ring.
"We'll make the terms very attractive for Cotto. We would make a lot of concessions to get that fight," Golovkin's promoter Tom Loeffler told ESPN. There have been reports of a rumor that HBO is adding a stipulation that says if they carry Cotto's fight vs. Heiland, he must agree to fight Canelo Alvarez his next time out.
That is still speculation-and Cotto vs. Heiland hasn't been announced officially yet-but if so, Cotto will most likely have to vacate his WBC title while Golovkin fights someone else for it.
Also, while Golovkin and Ward are intriguing opponents for Froch, his main target is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. "We've got talks with Ward ongoing, but the Chavez fight is still the one he wants," Hearn said.
[Mirror]
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