Boxing fans have their answer as to whom will fight Gennady "GGG" Golovkin next, and that man is brand new IBF champion David Lemieux, a fellow knockout artist and one of boxing's rising names.Lemieux knocked down Hassan N'Dam six times en route to a unanimous decision victory in June, and isn't taking it easy now that he has the strap. The fight will happen on October 17 at Madison Square Garden.
Lemieux is 34-2-0 with 31 knockouts, and since hitting a rough patch as a younger fighter when he lost two straight bouts, he has won seven straight, six by knockout. He will be a heavy underdog against Golovkin, who has stopped his last 20 opponents, but Lemieux says his power can match Golovkin's.
"Golovkin has a habit of hurting his opponents mentally before demolishing them, but I have the power and I know who I am going to fight. I'm not going in there to fight against Golovkin, I'm going in there to win against Golovkin," Lemieux said.
Golovkin has been clamoring for a big fight, and specifically called out lineal middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto, who is close to finalizing a deal to face Canelo Alvarez instead this fall. Talks with super middleweight Carl Froch fizzled as quickly as they heated up, and then Froch retired. Discussions with Andre Ward are contentious, and Ward seems unwilling to meet Golovkin at 164 pounds, the weight in between their respective divisions. That may be because Ward can no longer make 168 pounds after a 19-month layoff, or he may have designs on moving to light heavyweight to challenge Sergey "Krusher" Kovalev. Junior middleweight Erislandy Lara threw his hat in the ring as well, but to no avail.
Golovkin's stated goal is to unify the middleweight division, so even though Lemieux's name isn't as big as Cotto's, he is a quality opponent and he has a belt for Golovkin to win. This fight will be Golovkin's first ever pay-per-view bout, and if it can do big numbers it will go a long way toward proving he is not the unknown commodity many name fighters have said he is.
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