Golovkin on the brink of losing May 5th fight date

With each passing day it’s looking more and more likely that Gennady Golovkin won’t be fighting on Cinco De Mayo after all — traditionally one of the two biggest PPV weekends in boxing.

Canelo pulled out of the scheduled PPV fight once he saw the writing on the wall regarding his failed drug tests, and Golovkin’s team hasn’t been keen on taking on fighters such asDemetrius Andrade or Sergiy Derevyanchenko as late replacements.

Golovkin’s team instead tried to salvage the date against a relatively unknown Mexican junior middleweight, but the Nevada commission wouldn’t let that mismatch pass go. ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan’s name has also been floated but he’s no draw and, really, it’s another piss-poor style match-up that doesn’t even figure to be competitive — although the possibility is still hanging by a thread.

So in text message from Golovkin’s promoter to WBN, Tom Loeffler admits that Golovkin’s return might need to be pushed back.

“I’m not sure if the Gennady Golovkin fight is happening on May 5th at this point,” said Loeffler in a message late on Tuesday as the governing bodies continue talks to work out what happens next.

Derevyanchenko is currently Golovkin’s IBF mandatory challenger and it seems that he could be lined-up to fight Golovkin sometime this summer if Golovkin doesn’t instead go for a unification bout with Billy Joe Saunders (which would trump a mandatory defense). But at this stage it’s still all up in the air.