By: Sean Cross
On Friday evening, the World Boxing Association released the following statement on social media: “The WBA Championships Committee has ordered another decision between middleweight super champion Gennady Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) and mandatory challenger Erislandi following the world title reduction plan.” Lara (@Laraboxing) #GGGLara. And after last weekend’s one-sided loss to Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin appears to have been ordered to defend his WBA middleweight title against Erislandi Lara. Admittedly, the WBA has too many titles, and now it needs to shake things up a bit. Of course there should only be one title per weight division, after all.
It’s still a solid matchup, though it’s clear that each fighter is well past their prime at this point. That’s too bad, because in their prime these two were anything but. But now Golovkin is forty years old. Lara is thirty-six years old. Needless to say, both Golovkin and Lara’s camps have thirty days to reach an agreement. If no agreement is reached, the promotion of the competition will then go to the highest bidder in an auction known as a bag auction. If a purse bid occurs, Golovkin will get three-quarters of his take.
Aside from having an impressive record, everyone has Canelo in common. Canelo in 2011 He defeated Lara by decision in a very close fight in 2014. Golovkin in 2011 He had two very close and controversial fights against Canelo in 2017 and 2018. When he and Canelo finally met for the third time last Saturday, however, Golovkin looked nothing like his old self. As for Lara, his last fight was an eighth-round stoppage of Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan last spring.
To be honest, this still has an amazing fight. Golovkin didn’t look like his old self last weekend, but a dated Golovkin is still head and shoulders above most in the modern fight game. As for Lara, he’s shown he can still win a name contest handily — and in entertaining fashion. As long as each man still has the ability to perform effectively in the ring, their contrasting styles, combined with their likeable personalities, could make this fight – if it goes down – a must-see event for die-hard fans. It might not be a game changer, but a Golovkin-Lara fight could make for a great night of boxing.
