The vast majority of fighters worth mentioning in-between 160 and 168 pounds is being linked with a chance to share the ring with Gennadiy Golovkin before he hangs up his gloves. The likes of Edgar Berlanga and John Ryder have openly suggested the bout.
Ryder’s and his team in particular have been chomping at the bit to nab a crack at a generational great. Ryder himself told ProBox TV that he “would love to go” to Kazakhstan just two weeks ago.
“I’m sure Golovkin’s got a few more miles on the clock, [he’s] a bit older as well,” Ryder continued in the same interview. “But listen, they say the power’s the last thing to go, so I’m sure he will still have that massive punch power.”
Matchroom CEO, Frank Smith followed that sentiment a week later, telling ProBox TV “I would love to see a fight in Kazakhstan with Gennadiy Golovkin, I think he deserves that. That would be something John Ryder would be up for.”
However, we sit waiting patiently with no real change from Golovkin’s camp. In speaking to his promoter Tom Loeffler on three separate occasions dating back to mid May, the trend has continued along the path that he is taking time out to be with the family but is not retired.
ProBox TV spoke exclusively to Loeffler to get his latest judgment on the man who ruled the middleweight division for over a decade.
“It is funny how things have changed.” Loeffler said. “Because when he was coming up on HBO and we were trying to get people to fight him, nobody wanted to know. When we were coming to the 02 Arena in London, Eddie [Hearn] had the day booked. We were originally going to fight Billy Joe Saunders to unify the titles, then he didn’t want to fight. Chris Eubank [Jr], that dragged on for about a month and then we couldn’t close that deal, and then finally ended up fighting Kell Brook. It is bizarre how people were vacating titles not to fight him, now it seems like everybody is mentioning his name when he is 41 years old.
“We will see what he decides to do. I know he is taking some time off to be with his family, which is well deserved after so many title defenses he made and middleweight and being the most active champion at the time. Right now, I think he is just going to decide what he is going to do and plot his course from there.”
Golovkin had relinquished his remaining IBO title last month, the least significant in most corners of the globe, having previously released his grip on the more significant WBA world titles in March.
“He opened a lot of doors in that middleweight division.” Loeffler added. “Just because he has dropped the titles doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to keep fighting, we haven’t heard anything from him that he doesn’t want to keep fighting. He is just looking for bigger names. After you have all those title defenses and the three fights with Canelo, he just wants the bigger names. I think he has a lot left in him, look at what he did to [Ryoto] Murata last year. Went over to Japan and knocked him out!”
