The deal that made the trilogy between Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin possible, stipulated that Golovkin, who holds both the WBA “Super” and IBF middleweight titles apart from the WBC belt, would immediately face WBA “regular” champion Erislandy Lara afterward.
Gennadiy Golovkin vs. Esquiva Falcao winner will face Erislandy Lara
After the defeat against Canelo via unanimous decision back on 17th September, the 40-year-old Golovkin confirmed that he was not going to retire and give up his middleweight belts.
By all accounts, there were no other options and Golovkin’s choices were to strike a deal by October 23, make a purse offer, or vacate the WBA belt he took from Ryota Murata back in April.
On Monday, however, WBA President Gilberto Mendoza officially stated that his organization along with the IBF had passed a joint resolution that would see Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) fight IBF mandatory challenger Esquiva Falcao (30-0, 20 KOs) and the winner would then meet Lara.
“It is a joint resolution”, Gilbertico told IZQUIERDAZO, “We get accounts and it should go with Falcao. The double mandatory will be communicated to Golovkin soon. First with Falcao and the winner against Erislandy Lara .”
“There will no longer be permits from us,” Mendoza added, “And I don’t think there are any from the IBF either.”
Its yet to be known exactly why this change came about, as Mendoza had earlier claimed Golovkin would face Lara next. One reason for this could be that Golovkin hasn’t faced an IBF challenger since beating Kamil Szeremeta in December 2020. Falcao, who defeated Patrice Volny by technical decision in a knockout final last November, gets the opportunity.
The 32-year-old Brazilian spent the first six years of his professional career facing low-level competition, with Volny being the boxer who remains his only opponent to be in the TOP 100.
As for Lara, he is free to fight in the meantime. The 39-year-old Lara is currently on a four fight win streak and in his last outing, defended the WBA (Regular) belt against Gary O’Sullivan on 28th May this year, after winning the vacant belt against Thomas LaManna in May last year.
