Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin vs. Kamil Szeremeta

Unfortunately this is happening. March 28th in Chicago, with Krzysztof Głowacki vs. Lawrence Okolie as chief support.

How bad a cherry-pick is this for the aging Kazakh? Well...if you ask me, not as bad as Steve Rolls, but worse than (and quite a large step down from) Sergiy Derevyanchenko.

Szeremata is 21-0 (5) in the pros...so, yeah, obviously not a massive banger. He is a skilled operator, though, and was Polish amateur champion with a 168-22-2 record before turning over. He also is ranked WBC #4 and IBF #3...which effectively makes him GGG's mandatory as the IBF #1 & 2 slots are both currently vacant. He also has been calling out Golovkin for nearly a year, and this isn't the first time a fight between them was in talks (previously it was discussed in March of 2019, likely targeting Golovkin's date in June that ultimately went to Rolls). He is a former EBU middleweight champion, and vacated the Euro belt ten months ago following his second defense to enter the GGG sweepstakes.

Golovkin had an overall successful 2019 on paper, dominating Rolls like he was supposed to with a KO4 (despite a rickety start, although it was the boo-birds; Rolls didn't actually win a round before succumbing) and then overcoming a stiff challenge from the Ukrainian and repelling him via UD. He needs to absolutely demolish contenders like Szeremata if he wants to position himself for any more big money unification fights before he steeply declines and/or retires.

 

I'm kind of curious to see what game plan Szeremata brings, as his calling out Golovkin has been pretty consistent (as opposed to just begging around for any cashout payday match with a big name).

Getting crushed no matter what he brings, though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

...yep, I was thinking about that. Blowing out Alejandro Goddi early and Rubin Díaz late shows that he can time an effective shot and catch a guy just right. Neither the Italian nor Spaniard had ever been stopped before or since. Really weird, though, as they're both vastly superior at first blush to all his other competition (against whom Szeremata had only 3 kayos in 19 tries).

Maybe a Selby or Hasegawa type, (very) late-bloomer? That or he really is a feather-fist but skilled enough to punish overly confident aggressive foes by pressing directly on their buttons.

 

Mandatory contender, and overall highest ranked opponent at middleweight that doesn't have upcoming fights signed and/or boxing politics conflicts w/ DAZN.

I also called it a cherry pick (at least compared with Derevyanchenko) in the OP.

There's only so much available to him. The division only has so much depth, and he already has W's over some of the highest ranked guys.

Really if Canelo stays up at 168 and/or 175 there is nothing left that Golovkin can do at MW that won't be soundly criticized by the haters. Jacobs rematch? Boo, already fought him. Saunders? Boo, hasn't made 160lbs in years, would be a horrendous weight drain anywhere shy of full-on SMW at this point. CEJ? Boo, got schooled by Saunders. Munguía? Boo, should have lost to Hogan and is a blown-up mono-dimensional 154lber (and yet Hogan won't do, either, because he's a natural 154lber himself and Charlo dusted him off). Charlo? Boo, should have lost to Korobov (and yet Korobov won't do, because he's old and his injury-prone body is breaking down). Murata? Boo, got exposed by Rob Brant (and yet Brant won't do because Murata wrecked him in the rematch). Literally nothing he can do to avoid receiving overly-harsh criticism.

 

...tbf, both Charlo bros fought last month, Andrade is technically already lined up to face Keeler (who is a waste of time and, yeah, could easily be persuaded to accept step-aside money if GGG's team really wanted to push for that), and BJS is done with middleweight.

But yeah a Jacobs or Derevyanchenko rematch would both not only sell, but make a lot more sense in terms of keeping his name relevant than does the Sickle of Białystok.

 

Can't recall ever hearing that language used to describe an Okolie fight.

Szeremata very well may get paddled around the ring, but he at least won't subject GGG to as much clinching as poor Głowacki has in store..