Gennady Golovkin and his team are losing hope that they will ever get the big fight with Miguel Cotto that they believe can transform the knockout artist nicknamed "GGG" into a bona fide pay-per-view star.

By defeating Marco Antonio Rubio for the WBC interim title he became the mandatory challenger for Cotto's regular title. Cotto was allowed one voluntary defense before being obligated to defend it vs. Golovkin ; most expected him to fight Canelo Alvarez with it. Instead, Cotto dominated Daniel Geale on June 6, and now is seeking to make a fight vs. Alvarez happen this fall.

The WBC has said it would sanction Cotto vs. Alvarez if both guaranteed the winner will face Golovkin, and Golovkin's handlers have said they would be amenable to a "step-aside" deal if guarantees were made. Cotto, however, admitted he is not a true middleweight after he knocked out Geale, and seems loathe to take on the powerful Golovkin.

"Gennady is the mandatory and the interim champion but it does not appear that Miguel Cotto wants anything to do with him," Abel Sanchez, Golovkin's trainer said. "But that's okay we want to fight for the WBC middleweight title and if Cotto vacates we'll go for that.

"Right now Tom Loeffler and his managers, the Herman brothers, are hard at work trying to find us an opponent. I hope it's one of the bigger names, whomever they come up with we'll be training and preparing for."

One option could be Canadian knockout artist David Lemieux (33-2-0, 31 KO), who will be fighting Hassan N'Dam on Saturday for the vacant IBF middleweight title. Lemieux's name has grown recently, and he has a vocal following in Montreal where he's fro m.

[Boxing Scene]