The World Boxing Association (WBA) has officially ordered a unification fight between WBA (Super) Middleweight Champion Gennadiy Golovkin and WBA (Regular) Middleweight Champion Erislandy Lara as part of their plan to reduce the number of championship titles in a single weight class.
Gennadiy Golovkin to defend his WBA “Super” belt against “Regular” champ Erislandy Lara
The teams of both champions have 30 days (until October 23) to reach an agreement on the fight, and in case an agreement cannot be reached, the sanctioning body will hold an auction for the right to organize the fight, as a result of which Golovkin will receive 75% of the prize fund, and Lara will receive the rest 25%.
In scheduling this fight, the WBA cited a rule clause that requires the champion who wins the title to face the official challenger within 120 days. Golovkin won the “Super” title back on 9th April against Ryōta Murata, which expired on 8th August.
However, the WBA granted the Kazakhani permission for the trilogy against the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on 17th September, under the condition that ‘GGG’ will have to defend his WBA belt against Lara within 120 days of the Canelo fight.
“The Committee decided to approve the request for permission and if Golovkin wins the fight against Canelo he will have five days (until September 23) to inform which title he wishes to keep and defend,” WBA stated while granting Golovkin permission for the trilogy, “If it is the middleweight title, he will have 120 days to face Erislandy Lara in a mandatory fight.”
“If he loses, he will have the same deadline to defend his middleweight title against the Cuban in his next fight,” the sanctioning body added.
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 WBA and IBF middleweight belts.
“Remember guys, I still have three belts at 160,” said Golovkin after the Canelo fight, “I’ll come back, guys. I’m still [the middleweight] champion, guys.” [H/T BoxingScene.com]
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.
