Gennady Golovkin’s rumored next opponent Kamil Szeremeta

By Dan Ambrose

Boxingnews24.com

#2 WBC Kamil Szeremeta (19-0, 4 KOs) is rumored to the next opponent for Gennady Golovkin (38-1, 34 KOs) when he returns to the ring on June 8 or 16 for his first fight with DAZN. Szeremeta, 29, has yet to be confirmed as GGG’s opponent for one of those two dates, but it’s a guy that makes a lot of sense.

Szeremeta has impressive wins over Kassim Ouma, Rafal Jackiewicz, Patrick Mendy, Artem Karpets, Ruben Diaz and Alessandro Goddi. Szeremeta is currently ranked #2 with the World Boxing Council. He’s just below #1 WBC Golovkin. With the two of them ranked #1 and #2 with the WBC, it makes sense for them to face each other to find out who the #1 contender is with the WBC. Jermall Charlo holds the interim WBC middleweight title. He’s the mandatory for Canelo at thi moment. Since the WBC has shown no sign of wanting to order Canelo to fight Jermall, then it leaves it open for GGG and Szeremeta to fight it out to earn a title shot against Canelo, Again, Szeremeta is still just the rumored opponent for Golovkin to fight in June. GGG’s next opponent is expected to be announced this week, according to Matchroom Boxing USA promoter Eddie Hearn. With only three months to go before Golovkin’s fight in June, it’s important to have the fight announced so that they can begin promoting it, and getting subscribers to DAZN to see it.

With Golovkin coming off of a disappointing loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez in his last fight in September, he could use a good ‘pick me up’ type opponent for him to get an easy victory to give him a quick boost in hi conference after what he endured in his last fight in terms of disappointment with the results. Szeremeta, 5’9 1/2″, is short for a middleweight, and he’s not a big puncher as his 21% KO percentage would tell you. Some boxing fans will no doubt complain if the little known Szeremeta is picked as GGG’s next opponent, but it would be no different than what Canelo Alvarez did in fighting Rocky Fielding in his first fight on DAZN last December. Szeremeta is the same level guy as Fielding. Boxing fans can argue that if Canelo was given a soft pushover for his first fight with DAZN, then Golovkin should too. After all, the 36-year-old Kazakhstan fighter is coming off of a loss, and a nine month layoff from boxing. That’s a pretty long time out of the ring for GGG. He needed the time off so that he could research the right network platform to call his home for his fights. Before signing with the streaming giant DAZN, Golovkin had been HBO for a number of years.

Golovkin signed a six-fight three-year deal with DAZN last week that is expected to take him all the way to his retirement. He’ll be fighting two times per years, and his contract will be up by the time he’s 39-years-old. If Golovkin is still fighting at a high level and holding world titles when he reaches that point, then it’s quite possible we could see him given a new contract. It’ll all depend on how well he’s fighting. If Golovkin can make a few tweaks in his game to deal with what Canelo will bring to him in their third fight, it’s possible that he could not only beat him, but stay on top for a good while longer. Golovkin is seen as the winner of both of his fights with Canelo by a large portion of the boxing public. In the third fight, GGG needs to make it conclusive so that there’s no question who the better fighter is between. The only way to do that is to knockout Canelo.