This Thursday night, WBA World Champion Gennady Golovkin defends his belt against Nilson Tapia in... Kazakhstan. 25 yr old Tapia stayed very active throughout 2010, and replaced Rubio who was initially supposed to face Golovkin on Dec 10th for the WBA title. Tapia only fought outside of Panama once... a 4 rounder in Germany. Welcome to Kazakhstan, kid. I think Golovkin's lead right will cause a mid round KO. Will actually be surprised if this goes the distance. Now, WBA's "Super" World Champion Felix Sturm hasn't yet announced who he's going to fight in Stuttgart, on Feb 19th. Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam is the interim champion to Golovkin's belt, and has nothing on the schedule... 1. Is two months enough of a break for GGG to gear up for a Sturm fight? 2. Would Golovkin have the right to cry wolf if the WBA sanctioned a Sturm-N'Jikam fight for February? 3. The latest WBA rankings are from October, and N'Jikam beat Khurtsidze on Oct 30th... David Lemieux, who was #3 in the October rankings, could now very well be #2 (they don't rate a #1, probably because they have an interim champ). Do you think Lemieux would rather go after Golovkin or Sturm than chase Martinez after his eliminator with Rubio? I want to see Golovkin officially take over the WBA MW title(s) - I think he will be more "Super" than Sturm ever was... :good I also can't wait to see what GYM will decide to do in regards to my boy David's career post-Rubio... the WBC is a mess with Chavez Jr and Zbik in the championship picture (who the **** knows what Martinez will end up doing), same with the WBA and their 3 champs. He's probably going to be ranked #1 contender @ WBC & WBA after he beats Rubio... really hoping GYM gets David a title shot before the end of 2011. :bbb
Golovkin is on top on my MW prospect list (not really a prospect anymore) ahead of N'Jikam, Lemieux or Guerrero. Sturm or Hassan, I see him taking both though it's likely that he'll only get a decision win over Felix. But the way Khurtsidze was able to get to Hassan is a baaaad sign for the French fighter.
Will there be a rematch? I just came across Sylvester's file... the guy is fighting a bum in January. But hey, that's after defeating the all-powerful Mahir Oral in October. Still can't believe there was an IBF supervisor appointed to the fight (vs the Karmazin fight), which tells me Oral was.. his mandatory?!? He barely got past Karmazin and Lorenzo... the IBF is a joke @ MW, look at their 25 Nov '10 rankings: 1 Daniel Geale 2 NOT RATED 3 Anthony Mundine 4 Cory Spinks 5 Kelly Pavlik Considering the messes at the WBC and WBA, and assuming the IBF won't get Sylvester a live opponent anytime soon, the WBO is the only sanctioning organization that doesn't raise boatloads of question marks. Pirog fought 3 times in 2010, should be announcing his next fight/opponent soon. Probably on a Spring HBO card... the sooner the better. He could face Guerrero or Macklin, both are legit fights as far as I'm concerned. Better yet, send Pirog to Germany so Sylvester lets go of the belt *while lying on the canvas, unconscious*
He is the real deal Golovkin he has enormous power in both hands and a Bulldog style,he has a knockout over Bute and an easy win over Dirrel in the Amatuers so theres no doubting his Class,there are a lot of fighters not in a hurry to fight Golovkin,but if they do I hope they have a decent Chin.!!!!!
I'd love to see an N'Dam-Avtandil rematch, but even moreso the long awaited GGG-Hassan showdown which was mandated BTW for early 2011, so once Golo is done with Tapia, the negotiations should start (thouh he still has to settle the disputes with Universum and if they can stop the fight happening the WBA could strip Gennady for the much of Sturm's, Universum's and Hassan's pleasure.)
time for sturm to man up and face martinez, no hiding in the backyard fighting easy guys all the time. Wba is ****ing the middleweight division up with their 4 beltholders or something, its ridiculous. Time for superchamp sturm to step up or hand his belt over finally.
Tapia is a public sparring session for Golovkin, that said the WBA mandated N'Jikam and Golovkin take place in January (I can't imagine that working that quickly, but February seems possible). I also imagine that Golovkin will concede to have the fight take place in France just to make sure it actually happens. Meantime Khurtsidze is now looking to fight Giovanni Lorenzo in February in Georgia, for get this, the WBA interm title currently held by N'Jikam! Last I heard, Sturm was looking to fight Corey Spinks in February. So I think we'll see the winner of Golovkin-N'Jikam face the winner of Lorenzo-Khurtsidze, then by fall/winter the winner of that will finally face Sturm. I wish Showtime would get involved with showing these fights.
Sturm like a lot of fighters is in no hurry to fight Golovkin,we will see what Srums chin is like,Tapia is no Mug fighter went the distance with Trout a few fights ago and could only last 3 rounds with Golovkin.!!!!
Boxing fans always seem to have extremely short memories. Sturm and Golovkin made a "gentleman's agreement" not to fight until both are out from under Universum. At the time virtually everyone applauded them. Felix got free, but Golovkin is still tangled up in legal battles.
Provided GGG gets released from Universum soon as a result of the legal battles, how long do you think he'll tolerate being called a "regular" champ for?
