Unified middleweight world champion Gennadiy Golovkin will be defending his WBA (Super) title against the WBA (Regular) champion Erislandy Lara and that too within 120 days after the Kazakhstani boxer’s trilogy fight with Canelo Alvarez, the Association has ordered.
With the IBF and IBO belts already around his belt, Golovkin clinched the WBA “Super” title with a TKO victory over Ryōta Murata back in April, which crowned him as the three belt champion at 160.
Now, “GGG” is gearing up for the highly anticipated trilogy against undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo on 17th September, with the Mexican’s 168-pound titles up for grabs.
However, Golovkin will have a 120 day deadline to defend his own WBA belt against the sanctioning body’s “Regular” titlist Lara in order to keep the title, as Salvador Rodriguez of ESPN reported on Twitter.
“In the case of @GGGBoxing, who will fight with @Canelo on 17/Sept, @WBABoxing indicates that he must make the mandatory defense against @Laraboxing in case he remains in Middleweight after the fight, in a period not greater than 120 days,” the tweet from Rodriguez read.
En el caso de @GGGBoxing, que peleará con @Canelo el 17/Sept, @WBABoxing le indica que deberá hacer la defensa obligatoria ante @Laraboxing en dado caso de mantenerse en peso Mediano tras la contienda, en un lapso no mayor a 120 días.
— Salvador Rodriguez (@ChavaESPN) July 19, 2022
In the event of Golovkin defeating Canelo in September, he will clinch the 168-pound WBA title as well, giving him an option to keep either the 160 or 168 belts. In case he keeps the 160-pound belt, a mandatory defense against Lara will be on the way, rejecting which will still let him keep the IBF and IBO belts.
The 39-year-old Lara is currently on a four fight win streak and in his last outing, defended the WBA (Regular) middleweight belt against Gary O’Sullivan on 28th May this year, after winning the vacant belt against Thomas LaManna in May last year.
Mike Coppinger predicts Gennadiy Golovkin will retire after Canelo trilogy
Many boxing fans also believe that Golovkin will call it a career after the Canelo trilogy in September as it will be his last huge payday, and Mike Coppinger has also made the same prediction in his ESPN column.
“GGG to retire after trilogy fight with Álvarez. Golovkin is now 40 years old and nearing the end of his career. For so long, he’d wanted a third chance with Alvarez, which he’s now getting. This is their last chance to settle a bitter rivalry between them,” Coppinger wrote, “He’s already made tens of millions of dollars, and his best payday yet could be his last.”
