The WBA has ordered Gennady Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) to defend his middleweight championship against "regular" champion Erislandy Lara (29-3-3, 17 KOs) in his upcoming contest.
Earlier, Golovkin resigned his IBF championship after being required to defend it against Esquiva Falcao (30-0, 20 KOs) by the sanctioning body. Golovkin, 40, decided to relinquish the championship rather than take the fight, which would have been very challenging for him. He is now left with only the WBA belt.
Now, Golovkin must choose whether or not to accept this similarly challenging bout against the highly competent southpaw after the WBA ordered him to defend against the 39-year-old Cuban Lara.
Golovkin's last bout ended in a 12-round unanimous decision loss to Canelo Alvarez. That performance by Gennady was especially disheartening because of how little effort he put in the first six rounds. Golovkin spent the majority of the fight circling the ring and tying up Canelo whenever the latter got close enough for his hands to drop. The fight was almost over by the time Golovkin began to let his hands go in the eighth round, and he needed a knockout, which he was unable to secure.
Since fighting to a 12-round tie with Brian Castano in 2019, Lara has prevailed in his previous four contests. With the way he's been fighting lately, it would be difficult for Golovkin to defeat or even draw with Lara since the Cuban star is fighting at a higher level than him and would take advantage of his slow hand speed and low work rate.
Image Credit: DAZN